The boundary of the outer space of a free product (Q1678641): Difference between revisions

Let $F_n$ denote the free group of rank $n$. Let $G$ be a countable group that splits as a free product: \[ G=G_1*\dots *G_k*F_n \] Assume $n+k\ge 2$. The group $\mathrm{Out}(G,\{G_1 ,\dots,G_k\})$ consists of those outer automorphisms of $G$ that preserve the conjugacy classes of each $G_i$. $\mathrm{Out}(G,\{G_1 ,\dots,G_k\})$ acts on the outer space $\mathcal{PO}(G,\{G_1,\dots,G_k\})$. An outer space can be embedded into the projective space. \par The goal of the paper is to describe the closure of the image of this embedding. It is shown that this closure is compact and that it is the space of projective length functions of minimal very small $(G,\{G_1,\dots,G_k\})$-trees. Also the dimension $(3n+2k-4)$ and the dimension of its boundary $(3n+2k-5)$ are computed. \par In addition it is shown that any very small $(G,\{G_1,\dots,G_k\})$-tree has at most $2n+2k-2$ orbits of branch points.