Boundedly simple groups of automorphisms of trees

Abstract

A group is boundedly simple if, for some constant N, every nontrivial conjugacy class generates the whole group in N steps. For a large class of trees, Tits proved simplicity of a canonical subgroup of the automorphism group, which is generated by pointwise stabilizers of edges. We prove that only for uniform subdivisions of biregular trees are such groups boundedly simple. In fact these groups are 8-boundedly simple. As a consequence, we prove that if G is boundedly simple and G acts by automorphisms on a tree, then G fixes some vertex of A, or stabilizes some end of A, or the smallest nonempty G-invariant subtree of A is a uniform subdivision of a biregular tree.