On groups of diffeomorphisms of the interval with finitely many fixed points II

Abstract

In [6], it is proved that any subgroup of Diff ω + (I) (the group of orientation preserving analytic diffeomorphisms of the interval) is either metaabelian or does not satisfy a law. A stronger question is asked whether or not the Girth Alternative holds for subgroups of Diff ω + (I). In this paper, we answer this question affirmatively for even a larger class of groups of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of the interval where every non-identity element has finitely many fixed points. We show that every such group is either affine (in particular, metaabelian) or has infinite girth. The proof is based on sharpening the tools from the earlier work [1].