ON THE GROWTH OF GROUPS AND AUTOMORPHISMS.

We consider the growth functions βΓ(n) of amalgamated free products Γ = A *C B, where A ≅ B are finitely generated, C is free abelian and |A/C| = |A/B| = 2. For every d ∈ ℕ there exist examples with βΓ(n) ≃ nd+1βA(n). There also exist examples with βΓ(n) ≃ en. Similar behavior is exhibited among Dehn functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]