A Connected 3-State Reversible Mealy Automaton Cannot Generate an Infinite Burnside Group

The class of automaton groups is a rich source of the simplest examples of infinite Burnside groups. However, all such examples have been constructed as groups generated by non-reversible automata. Moreover, it was recently shown that 2-state reversible Mealy automata cannot generate infinite Burnside groups. Here we extend this result to connected 3-state reversible Mealy automata, using new original techniques. The results rely on a fine analysis of associated orbit trees and a new characterization of the existence of elements of infinite order