The primitive elements of the free group of rank two. (Q2491804)

Let \(\Phi=\langle\xi,\eta\rangle\) be the free group of rank \(2\). A reduced element \(\omega=c_1c_2\cdots c_n\in\Phi\), where the \(c_i\) are alternating nonzero powers of \(\xi\) and \(\eta\), is a `palindrome' if \(c_i=c_j\), provided that \(i+j=0\pmod n\). Equivalently, \(\omega\) is a palindrome if \(\omega\varphi(\omega)=1\), where \(\varphi\) is the automorphism of \(\Phi\) which sends \(\xi\) and \(\eta\) to their inverses. Here an element \(\alpha\in\Phi\) is said to be `primitive' if there exists \(\beta\in\Phi\) such that the map \(\xi\to\alpha\), \(\eta\to\beta\) defines an automorphism of \(\Phi\) which fixes the commutator \([\xi,\eta]\). In [J. Algebra 223, No. 2, 610-614 (2000; Zbl 0951.20025)] the author characterized the primitive elements of \(\Phi\) with respect to the existence of palindromes. More precisely, he proved that the element \(\alpha\) is primitive if and only if there exist palindromes \(\omega\) and \(\pi\) such that (1) \(\alpha=\eta^{-1}\omega\xi\) and \(\pi\omega\eta^{-1}\xi=\xi\eta^{-1}\omega\pi\). In this paper a characterization of all palindromes \(\omega\in\Phi\) for which \(\alpha=\eta^{-1}\omega\xi\) is a primitive element is given. This is obtained as follows: Firstly, the palindromes are separated into three classes: the elementary, the generic and the degenerate ones (see the definition in the paper). After using elementary properties of permutations, which are applied to the indexes \(i\) in \(\omega=c_1c_2\cdots c_n\in\Phi\), where the \(c_i\) are alternating nonzero powers of \(\xi,\eta\), it is obtained a description of \(\omega\), provided that it is generic. The palindrome \(\pi\) which (with \(\omega\)) satisfies (1) is obtained from the structure of \(\omega\) (see Theorem in the paper). For all elementary palindromes \(\omega\) the element \(\alpha=\eta^{-1}\omega\xi\) is primitive. The case of degenerate palindromes is reduced to the other two cases.