The asymptotic density of Wecken maps on surfaces with boundary (Q1707269)

Let \(f: X \to X\) be a selfmap on a complex \(X\). The Nielsen number \(N(f)\) of \(f\) is a homotopy invariant which satisfies \(N(f) \leq MF(f)\), where \(MF(f)\) is the minimal number of fixed points for any mapping in the homotopy class of \(f\). When these numbers are equal, the map is called Wecken. When \(X\) is a compact surface with boundary, the numbers \(N(f)\) and \(MF(f)\) depend only on the induced homomorphism on the fundamental group, which in this situation is a finitely generated free group. Denote by \(W_{n}\), for each \(n \geq 2\), the set of all Wecken endomorphisms on the free group of rank \(n\), that is, homomorphisms induced by Wecken selfmaps. For a finitely generated free group \(G\), let \(G_p\) be the subset of all words of \(G\) of length at most \(p\). Define \[ D(S) = \displaystyle \liminf_{p \rightarrow \infty } \frac{|S \cap G_{p}|}{|G_{p}|} . \] In this paper the authors show that for \(n \geq 2\), \[ \displaystyle \lim_{ n \rightarrow \infty} D(W_{n}) = 1. \] In some sense the authors measure the size of \(W_{n}\) according to its asymptotic density, \(D(S)\), within the set of all endomorphisms.