Cellular automata were introduced in the first half of the last century by John von Neumann who used them as theoretical models for self-reproducing machines. The authors present a self-contained exposition of the theory of cellular automata on groups and explore its deep connections with recent developments in geometric group theory, symbolic dynamics, and other branches of mathematics and theoretical computer science. The topics treated include in particular the Garden of Eden theorem for amenable groups, and the Gromov-Weiss surjunctivity theorem as well as the solution of the Kaplansky conjecture on the stable finiteness of group rings for sofic groups. The volume is entirely self-contained, with 10 appendices and more than 300 exercises, and appeals to a large audience including specialists as well as newcomers in the field. It provides a comprehensive account of recent progress in the theory of cellular automata based on the interplay between amenability, geometric and combinatorial group theory, symbolic dynamics and the algebraic theory of group rings which are treated here for the first time in book form.

Translated from the popular French edition, the goal of the book is to provide a self-contained introduction to mean topological dimension, an invariant of dynamical systems introduced in 1999 by Misha Gromov. The book examines how this invariant was successfully used by Elon Lindenstrauss and Benjamin Weiss to answer a long-standing open question about embeddings of minimal dynamical systems into shifts. A large number of revisions and additions have been made to the original text. Chapter 5 contains an entirely new section devoted to the Sorgenfrey line. Two chapters have also been added: Chapter 9 on amenable groups and Chapter 10 on mean topological dimension for continuous actions of countable amenable groups. These new chapters contain material that have never before appeared in textbook form. The chapter on amenable groups is based on Folner's characterization of amenability and may be read independently from the rest of the book. Although the contents of this book lead directly to several active areas of current research in mathematics and mathematical physics, the prerequisites needed for reading it remain modest; essentially some familiarities with undergraduate point-set topology and, in order to access the final two chapters, some acquaintance with basic notions in group theory. Topological Dimension and Dynamical Systems is intended for graduate students, as well as researchers interested in topology and dynamical systems. Some of the topics treated in the book directly lead to research areas that remain to be explored.

Gromov's theory of hyperbolic groups have had a big impact in combinatorial group theory and has deep connections with many branches of mathematics suchdifferential geometry, representation theory, ergodic theory and dynamical systems. This book is an elaboration on some ideas of Gromov on hyperbolic spaces and hyperbolic groups in relation with symbolic dynamics. Particular attention is paid to the dynamical system defined by the action of a hyperbolic group on its boundary. The boundary is most oftenchaotic both as a topological space and as a dynamical system, and a description of this boundary and the action is given in terms of subshifts of finite type. The book is self-contained and includes two introductory chapters, one on Gromov's hyperbolic geometry and the other one on symbolic dynamics. It is intended for students and researchers in geometry and in dynamical systems, and can be used asthe basis for a graduate course on these subjects.