Rank of mapping tori and companion matrices (Q353420)

The authors study the problem of computing the rank of certain semidirect products. They are mostly concerned with semidirect products of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\) by \(\mathbb{Z}\) and of \(\pi_1(S)\) by \(\mathbb{Z}\), where \(S=S_g\) is a closed surface of genus \(g\). The rank of such a group is the smallest number of generators for the group. For a semidirect product \(G\) of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\) by \(\mathbb{Z}\) with monodromy \(\phi\), they show that the rank of \(G\) is one plus the minimal number of \(\phi\)--orbits needed to generate \(\mathbb{Z}^d\). They show that \(\mathbb{Z}^d\) is generated by a single \(\phi\) orbit if and only if \(\phi\) is conjugate to a certain companion matrix having the same characteristic polynomial. Using the solvability of the conjugacy problem in \(GL_d(\mathbb{Z})\), they show that it is decidable whether or not \(G\) has rank two, which is the main result of the paper. If \(\phi\) has infinite order as an automorphism of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\), the authors show that for all sufficiently large \(n\), the semidirect product of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\) by \(\mathbb{Z}\) with monodromy \(\phi^n\) has rank at least three. The authors also consider the fundamental group of a closed fibered hyperbolic \(3\)--manifold \(M\) with monodromy \(\psi\) and fiber \(S=S_g\). They show that for any sufficiently large \(n\), the cover \(M_n\) of \(M\) given by replacing \(\psi\) by \(\psi^n\) has a fundamental group of rank \(2g+1\).