Combinatorial distance between HNN decompositions of a group (Q1208198)

Let \(A\) be a group with a presentation \(\langle X\mid R\rangle\), and let \(B\) be a subgroup of \(A\) and \(\varphi: B \to A\) a monomorphism. The HNN extension of \(A\) relative to \(B\) and \(\varphi\) is the group \[ A *_{B,\varphi,t} = \langle X,t\mid R,\;t^{-1}bt = \varphi(b)\;(b \in B)\rangle. \] This extension has a natural epimorphism onto \(\mathbb{Z}\). Conversely, for a given group \(G\), suppose that an epimorphism \(\lambda: G \to \mathbb{Z}\) with kernel \(G_ \lambda\) and a section \(\tau: \mathbb{Z} \to G\) are given. Let \(\varphi\) be an inner automorphism of \(G_ \lambda\) given by \(\varphi(g) = t^{-1}gt\) where \(t = \tau(1)\). The author calls the following set \({\mathcal D} = \{A \subset G_ \lambda \mid\) the natural homomorphism \(\iota : A*_{B,\varphi\mid B,s} \to G\) induced by the inclusion \(A \subset G\) and satisfying \(\iota(s) = t\) is an isomorphism, where \(B = A \cap tAt^{-1}\}\) the set of HNN decompositions of \(G\) relative to the condition \[ 1 \to \underset{\circlearrowright_ \varphi} G_ \lambda G{\underset\tau{\overset\lambda\rightleftarrows}} \mathbb{Z} 0,\quad t = \tau(1),\quad \varphi(g) = t^{-1}gt. \] An interesting subclass of \(\mathcal D\) is \({\mathcal D}_{fg} = \{\alpha \in A *_ B \in {\mathcal D}\mid \) both \(A\), \(B\) are finitely generated\}. It is proved that when \(G\) is finitely presented then \({\mathcal D}_{fg} \neq \emptyset\). The main purpose of the paper is to define a distance function on \({\mathcal D}_{fg}\). To achieve this, the author associates to each \(\alpha \in {\mathcal D}\) a nonnegative integer valued function \(v_ \alpha : G \to \mathbb{Z}\) defined as follows: Any \(g \in G\) can be written as a Britton's reduced word relative to \(\alpha\); \(g = a_ 1 t^{\varepsilon_ 1}a_ 2 \dots a_ nt^{\varepsilon_ n} a_{n + 1}\). Using this, he puts \(v_ \alpha(g) = v^ +_ \alpha(g) - v^ -_ \alpha(g)\) where \(v^ +(g)\) and \(v^ -(g)\) are respectively the maximum and minimum values of \(\{0,\varepsilon_ 1,\varepsilon_ 1 + \varepsilon_ 2,\dots,\varepsilon_ 1 + \varepsilon_ 2 + \dots+\varepsilon_ n\}\). It is then shown that for every \(\alpha,\beta \in {\mathcal D}_{fg}\), \(d(\alpha,\beta) = \sup_{g\in G} | v_ \alpha(g) - v_ \beta(g)| < \infty\) is a distance function on \({\mathcal D}_{fg}\). Two examples of groups having many different HNN decompositions are given and the distances between them are calculated.