Automorphisms of free groups have finitely generated fixed point sets (Q1093011): Difference between revisions

As the title indicates this paper deals with the problem of the subgroup of the fixed points of an automorphism of a free group. It was first proved by \textit{S. Gersten} [Adv. Math. 64, 51-85 (1987; Zbl 0616.20014)] that the subgroup of fixed points of an automorphism of a finitely generated free group is finitely generated settling thus a conjecture of G. P. Scott. In the present paper the author gives a new proof based on new ideas. More precisely the author considers the end completion of the free group F (the set of infinite reduced words for a suitable metric), he studies the homeomorphism induced on this completion by the given automorphism and proves first the analogous result for the fixed set of this homeomorphism.