On Jones' subgroup of R. Thompson group \(F\) (Q335596)

The Thompson group \(F\) consists of all piecewise-linear increasing self-homeomorphisms of the unit interval with all slopes powers of 2 and all break points of the derivative dyadic fractions. The group \(F\) is generated by two functions \(x_0\) and \(x_1\) defined as follows. \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} x_0(t) &=2t \qquad \qquad \qquad &\text{if}\quad &0\leq t\leq 1/4, \\ x_0(t) &=t+1/4 &\text{if}\quad &1/4\leq t\leq 1/2, \\ x_0(t) &= t/2+1/2 &\text{if}\quad &1/2\leq t\leq 1, \\ x_1(t) &=t &\text{if}\quad &0\leq t\leq 1/2, \\ x_1(t) &= 2t-1/2 &\text{if}\quad &1/2\leq t\leq 5/8, \\ x_1(t) &= t+1/8 &\text{if}\quad &5/8\leq \leq 3/4, \\ x_1(t) &= t/2+1/2 &\text{if}\quad &3/4\leq t\leq 1. \end{alignedat} \] If \(x_{i+1}\), \(i\geq 1\), denotes \(x_{0}^{-i}x_{1}x_{0}^{i}\), then the group \(F\) has the presentation \(F=\langle x_{i}, i\geq 0\mid x_{i}^{x_{j}}=x_{i+1}\text{ for every }j<i\rangle\). There are equivalent definitions of the group \(F\). In [\textit{K. S. Brown}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 44, 45--75 (1987; Zbl 0613.20033)], \(F\) is defined using dyadic subdivisions and, in [\textit{V. Guba} and the second author, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 620, 117 p. (1997; Zbl 0930.20033)], it is proved that the group \(F\) is a diagram group over the semigroup presentation \(\langle x\mid x=x^{2}\rangle \). Also, in [\textit{V. F. R. Jones}, J. Comb. Algebra 1, No. 1, 1--44 (2017; Zbl 1472.57014)], the Thompson graph \(T(g)\) associated with an element \(g\in F\) is defined. In [loc. cit.], V. Jones shows that the group \(F\) encodes all links in a natural way. A subgroup of \(F\), called the directed Thompson group \(\overrightarrow{F}\), encodes all oriented links. There it is shown that the group \(\overrightarrow{F}\) is the set of all elements in \(F\) for which the associated graph \(T(g)\) is bipartite. In the present paper, the equivalence of the definition of the Thompson graph \(T(g)\) associated with an element \(g\) of \(F\) and the definition in terms of semigroup diagrams (Proposition 3.5) is proved and an equivalent definition of the group \(\overrightarrow{F}\) (Definition 4.2) is given. For every \(n\geq 2\), the ``brother'' group \(F_{n}\) of \(F=F_{2}\) is defined as the group of all piecewise linear increasing homeomorphisms of the unit interval where all slopes are powers of \(n\) and all breaks of the derivative occur at \(n\)-adic fractions (a description of \(F_{n}\), given in generators and defining relations, can be found in [Guba and the second author, loc. cit.]). Here, it is proved that \(F_{n}\) embeds into \(F\) in a natural way. Now we can state the main results of the paper. Theorem 1. Jones' subgroup \(\overrightarrow{F}\) is generated by elements \(x_{0}x_{1}\), \(x_{1}x_{2}\), \(x_{2}x_{3}\) where \(x_{i}, i\in \mathbb{N}\), are the standard generators of \(F\). It is isomorphic to \(F_{3}\) and coincides with the smallest subgroup of \(F\) which contains \(x_{0}x_{1}\) and is closed under addition (which is a natural binary operation on \(F\), see Section 2.2). Theorem 2. Jones' subgroup \(\overrightarrow{F}\) is the stabilizer of the set of dyadic fractions from the unit interval \([0,1]\) with odd sums of digits, under the standard action of \(F\) on the interval \([0,1]\). Corollary 3. Jones' subgroup \(\overrightarrow{F}\) coincides with its commensurator in \(F\). Generalisations of the results above are obtained. More precisely, the group \(\overrightarrow{F_{n}}\) is defined for every \(n\in \mathbb{N}\) (Definition 5.3) and it is proved that \(\overrightarrow{F_{n-1}}\) is isomorphic to \(F_{n}\) and for all \(n\in \mathbb{N}\) the subgroup \(\overrightarrow{F_{n}}\) coincides with its commensurator in \(F\). In [loc. cit.], Jones introduced the Thompson index of a link which can be defined as the smallest number of leaves of a tree diagram representing that link. An estimate of this index is not given. In the last section of the paper, the authors analyze the connection between elements of the Thompson group \(F\) and links. Here, the analysis differs slightly from that given by Jones in [loc. cit.]. This analysis allowed the authors to obtain a reconstruction of an element \(g\in F\) from the Thompson graph \(T(g)\) and to give an estimate for the Thompson index (Theorem 6.13). The paper concludes with some interesting open problems.