On the palindromic and primitive widths of a free group. (Q1772434)

If \(G\) is a group and \(S\) a subset of \(G\) which generates \(G\), then for \(x\in G\) the length of \(x\) relative to \(S\), denoted by \(l_S(x)\), is the minimal \(k\) such that \(x\) is a product of \(k\) elements of \(S\). The supremum of all the values of \(l_S(x)\), \(x\in G\), is called the width of \(G\) with respect to \(S\) and is denoted by \(\text{wid}(G,S)\). In this paper the authors study the width of the free group \(F_n\), of rank \(n\), in the case \(S\) is the set of palindromic words and in the case that \(S\) is the set of primitive words in a certain basis. In the former case the width is called the palindromic width, while in the latter case the width is called the primitive width. A palindromic word is a word which remains the same if the letters of the word are written in the reverse order and a primitive word is an element of some basis of \(F_n\). The main results of this paper are: The palindromic width of a non-Abelian free group \(F\) is infinite. The primitive width of a free group \(F\) is infinite if and only if \(F\) is finitely generated. The primitive width of any infinitely generated free group is two. -- The list of references contains 22 items mostly on previous relative results.