Topological full groups of minimal subshifts and quantifying local embeddings into finite groups

Abstract: We investigate quantitative aspects of the LEF property for subgroups of the topological full group $[[ \sigma ]]$ of a two-sided minimal subshift over a finite alphabet, measured via the LEF growth function. We show that the LEF growth of $[[ \sigma ]]^{\prime}$ may be bounded from above and below in terms of the recurrence function and the complexity function of the subshift, respectively. As an application, we construct groups of previously unseen LEF growth types, and exhibit a continuum of finitely generated LEF groups which may be distinguished from one another by their LEF growth.