Volume gradients and homology in towers of residually-free groups

We study the asymptotic growth of homology groups and the cellular volume of classifying spaces as one passes to normal subgroups $G_n<G$ of increasing finite index in a fixed finitely generated group $G$, assuming $\bigcap_n G_n =1$. We focus in particular on finitely presented residually free groups, calculating their $\ell_2$ betti numbers, rank gradient and asymptotic deficiency. If $G$ is a limit group and $K$ is any field, then for all $j\ge 1$ the limit of $\dim H_j(G_n,K)/[G,G_n]$ as $n\to\infty$ exists and is zero except for $j=1$, where it equals $-\chi(G)$. We prove a homotopical version of this theorem in which the dimension of $\dim H_j(G_n,K)$ is replaced by the minimal number of $j$-cells in a $K(G_n,1)$; this includes a calculation of the rank gradient and the asymptotic deficiency of $G$. Both the homological and homotopical versions are special cases of general results about the fundamental groups of graphs of {\em{slow}} groups. We prove that if a residually free group $G$ is of type $\rm{FP}_m$ but not of type $\rm{FP}_{\infty}$, then there exists an exhausting filtration by normal subgroups of finite index $G_n$ so that $\lim_n \dim H_j (G_n, K) / [G : G_n] = 0 \hbox{for} j \leq m$. If $G$ is of type $\rm{FP}_{\infty}$, then the limit exists in all dimensions and we calculate it.