Cohomological dimension and symmetric automorphisms of a free group (Q1118689)

The author obtains the virtual cohomological dimension of the group of symmetric automorphisms and the group of symmetric outer automorphisms of the free group F of rank n. An automorphism of F is called symmetric if it maps each free generator of F onto a conjugate or the inverse of a conjugate of a free generator (with respect to a free generating set S of F). The set of symmetric automorphisms is clearly a subgroup of Aut F and it is denoted by \(\Sigma\) A(F), while the image of \(\Sigma\) A(F), in the group Out F, is denoted by \(\Sigma\) O(F). Thus the main theorem of the paper states that the virtual cohomological dimension of the group \(\Sigma\) O(F) of symmetric outer automorphisms is n-2 i.e. \(vcd(\Sigma O(F))=n-2\) which implies that \(vcd(\Sigma A(F))=n-1\). We remind that \textit{S. Gersten} [The Topology of the automorphism group of a free group, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. (to appear)] and \textit{M. Culler} and \textit{K. Vogtmann} [Invent. Math. 84, 91-119 (1986; Zbl 0589.20022)] have proved that the virtual cohomological dimension of Out F is 2n-3.