Some irreducible representations of automorphism groups of free groups (Q1094529)

Let A be the direct sum of cyclic groups of order m with generators \(X_ 1,...,X_ n\), F be a free group with a free basis \(x_ 1,...,x_ n\), and R be the kernel of the homomorphism \(F\to A\) sending \(x_ i\) to \(X_ i\). It is easy to see that \(R=F^ mF'\) where F' is the commutator subgroup of F and \(F^ m\) is the subgroup of F generated by mth powers \(x^ m\) for \(x\in F\). Note that R is a characteristic subgroup of F and consequently the automorphism group \(\theta =Aut F\) acts on R/R'. The main objective of this article is to describe the structure of the complex \(\theta\)-modules \(M'={\mathbb{C}}\otimes_{{\mathbb{Z}}}R/R'\) and \(M''={\mathbb{C}}\otimes_{{\mathbb{Z}}}F'/R'\). The author proves that \(M'=M_ 1'\oplus M''\), dim M''\(=(n-1)(m^ n-1)\) (Corollary 5.15), and \(M''=\oplus_{d| m,d>1}M'_ d\) where the explicitly defined \(\theta\)-modules \(M'_ d\), \(d| m\), \(d\geq 1\), are simple and pairwise non-isomorphic (Theorem 8.2). A special case of this result for \(m=2\), \(n=3\) was obtained earlier by \textit{E. K. Grossman} [J. Algebra 30, 388- 399 (1974; Zbl 0283.20019)].