On Howson's theorem (Q1319582): Difference between revisions

The theorem of the title says that the intersection of two finitely generated subgroups of a free group is itself finitely generated. Many papers have been written about a good estimate of the rank of the intersection as a function of the ranks of the two subgroups. Denote the ranks of the two subgroups by \(r_ U\) and \(r_ V\), respectively, and by \(r_ I\) and \(r_ J\) the ranks of their intersection and their join, respectively. \textit{Hanna Neumann} conjectured [Publ. Math. 4, 186-189 (1956; Zbl 0070.020) = Selected Works of B. H. Neumann and Hanna Neumann (Winnipeg, Canada, 1988; Zbl 0655.20001), Vol. 3, 622-625] that \(r_ I - 1 \leq (r_ U - 1) (r_ V - 1)\). The authors prove that if one of the subgroups has finite index in their join, then \((r_ I - 1)(r_ J - 1) \leq (r_ U - 1)(r_ V - 1)\). Moreover, if the two subgroups satisfy the ``irredundant factor condition'', namely that none of their proper free factors have the same intersection as the subgroups themselves, and if, without loss of generality, \(r_ U \leq r_ V\), then \(r_ I - 1 \leq 2(r_ U - 1)(r_ V - 1) - (r_ J - 1)(r_ U - 1)\). They also use an example suggested by W. D. Neumann to show that the irredundant factor condition by itself can not replace the condition that one of the subgroups has finite index in their join to ensure their first inequality; but they conjecture that it suffices to imply their first inequality if the two subgroups have no common free factor.