Stabilization for the automorphisms of free groups with boundaries (Q2388870)

This paper proves stability results for the homology of certain subgroups of the automorphism group of a free group. Geometrically, the subgroups can be defined using a graph obtained from the \(1\)-point union of \(n\) circles by adding on \(k\) balloons, each of the latter being a circle and an arc connecting some point in the circle to the common point of the \(n\) circles. The group \(A_{n,k}\) is then the group of homotopy classes of homotopy equivalences of this graph that fix each of the balloon circles pointwise. Algebraically, \(A_{n,k}\) is obtained as a central extension, by a free abelian group, of the group of automorphisms of the free group on \(n+k\) generators that preserve each of the last \(k\) generators up to conjugacy. The latter groups may be regarded as interpolations between the full automorphism group and the symmetric automorphism group that fixes every generator up to conjugacy. The main result is that the stabilization maps \(A_{n,k}\to A_{n+1,k}\) and \(A_{n,k}\to A_{n,k+1}\) induce isomorphisms on homology in dimensions \(i\) when \(n\geq 3i+3\) and \(k\geq 0\). Consequently, the stable \(A_{n,k}\) groups have the same homology as the stable automorphism groups of free groups. The results of the paper are needed for the second author's recent work on the relationship between the infinite loop structures on the classifying spaces of mapping class groups of surfaces and of automorphism groups of free groups, after stabilization and plus construction. The groups \(A_{n,k}\) are closely related to \(3\)-dimensional topology. The authors first prove that extending \(A_{n,k}\) by an elementary abelian \(2\)-group yields the mapping class group of an orientable \(3\)-manifold which is a connected sum of copies of \(S^2\times S^1\), solid tori, and \(3\)-balls (the \(2\)-group is the subgroup generated by Dehn twists about imbedded \(2\)-spheres in the \(3\)-manifold). The main result is then a case of a much more general result on \(3\)-manifold mapping class groups whose proof forms the bulk of the paper: the homology groups of mapping class groups of most compact orientable \(3\)-manifolds, modulo Dehn twists about \(2\)-spheres, stabilize under iterated connected sum with \(S^2\times S^1\), and the stable groups are invariant under connected sum with a solid torus or a ball. In the proof, considerable information is obtained about simplicial complexes defined in terms of imbedded disks and \(2\)-spheres in reducible \(3\)-manifolds. These are analogous to the curve complexes for surfaces which in recent years have been used extensively in the study of mapping class groups of \(2\)-manifolds.