Branch groups, orbit growth, and subgroup growth types for pro-$p$ groups

Abstract

We first show that a class of pro-$p$ branch groups including the Grigorchuk group and the Gupta-Sidki groups all have subgroup growth type $n^{\log n}$. We then introduce the notion of orbit growth and use it to construct extensions of the Grigorchuk group and the Gupta-Sidki groups. We compute the subgroup growth type of these extensions and deduce that all functions between $n^{(\log n{)}^2}$ and $e^n$ occur as the subgroup growth type of a pro-$p$ group, thus, giving almost complete answer to a question raised by Lubotzky and Segal.

Title changed; Main theorem improved substantially