Dual automorphisms of free groups

MaRDI QIDQ6242882zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Fedaa Ibrahim, Martin Lustig

Publication date 24 June 2013

Abstract: For any choice of a basis $calA$ the free group $F_N$ of finite rank $Ngeq2$ can be canonically identified with the set $F(calA)$ of reduced words in $calAcupcal{A}^{-1}$. However, such a word $winF(calA)$ admits a second interpretation, namely as cylinder $C_w^{1}subsetpartial{F}_N$. The subset of $partial{F}_N$ defined by $C_w^1$ depends not only on the element of $F_N$ given by the word $w$, but also on the chosen basis $calA$. In particular one has in general, for $PhiinAut(F_N)$: ${\displaystyle }$Phi(C^1_w)

eq C^1_{Phi(w)}${\displaystyle }$ Indeed, the image of a cylinder under an automorphism $PhiinAut(F_N)$ is in general not a cylinder, but a finite union of cylinders: ${\displaystyle }$Phi (C^1_w)=C^{1}_U := �igcup_{u_i in U} C^1_{u_i}${\displaystyle }$ In his thesis the first author has given an efficient algorithm and a formula how to determine such a (uniquely determined) finite {em reduced} set $U=U(w)subset{F}_N$. We use those to define the dual automorphism $Ph{i}_{calA}^{\ast }$ by setting $Ph{i}_{calA}^{\ast }(w)=U(w)$. smallskip

oindent {�f Theorem:} {it For any $PhiinAut(F_N)$ there are at most 2N distinct finite subsets $U_{i}subset{F}_N$ such that for any $w=y_1\mathrm{...}{y}_{r}in{F}_A$ there is one of them, say $U_{i(w)}$, with ${\displaystyle }$Phi_{cal A}^*(w) = Phi(w) U_{i(w)}, ,${\displaystyle }$ and $U_{i(w)}$ depends only on the last letter $y_{r}inCAcupC{A}^{-1}$. Furthermore, the seize of each $U_i$ is bounded by $2^t$, where $tgeq0$ is the number of Nielsen automorphisms in any decomposition of $Phi$ as product of basis permutations, basis inversions and elementary Nielsen automorphisms.}

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