No label defined (Q3972224)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0701.00019.] In 1949 Marshall Hall proved the now well-known theorem: If \(F\) is a finitely generated free group, \(H_ 0\) a finitely generated subgroup, and \(x_ 1,\dots,x_ m\) are any elements of \(F\) which are not in \(H_ 0\), then there exists a subgroup \(H^*\) of \(F\) satisfying i) \(H^*\) has finite index in \(F\), ii) \(H_ 0\) is a free factor of \(H^*\), and iii) \(x_ 1,\dots,x_ m\not\in H^*\). A subgroup \(H^*\) which satisfies i) and ii) is called a *-group for \(H_ 0\). The paper provides an effective method for constructing all *-groups for a given subgroup \(H_ 0\). This method uses the folding and immersion techniques for graphs developed by Stallings.