Metric compactification of infinite Sierpi\'nski carpet graphs

Abstract

We associate, with every infinite word over a finite alphabet, an increasing sequence of rooted finite graphs, which provide a discrete approximation of the famous Sierpi\'nski carpet fractal. Each of these sequences converges, in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology, to an infinite rooted graph. We give an explicit description of the metric compactification of each of these limit graphs. In particular, we are able to classify Busemann and non-Busemann points of the metric boundary. It turns out that, with respect to the uniform Bernoulli measure on the set of words indexing the graphs, for almost all the infinite graphs, the boundary consists of four Busemann points and countably many non-Busemann points.