Certaines Relations D'Équivalence Sur L'Ensemble Des Bouts D'Un Groupe Libre (Q4024917)

Let \(G\) be a free group with \(g \geq 2\) generators. The author considers the problem of recognizing the conjugacy classes of \(G\) which can be represented by the simple curves on the boundary of a handlebody \(H\) with fundamental group \(G\). A multiword of \(G\) is a collection \(\gamma = (\gamma_ 1,\dots,\gamma_ p)\) of conjugacy classes of \(G\) which are indivisible and non proportional to each other. A multiword \(\gamma\) is called acylindric if there does not exist a decomposition of \(G\) as an amalgamated product over a group \(Z\) such that the collection \(\gamma\) decomposes as a union of two collections which are contained resp. in the factors of the amalgamated product. Let \(K\) be the space of ends of \(G\). It is known that the nontrivial elements of \(G\) act on \(K\) with precisely two fixed points. One can associate with \(\gamma\) an equivalence relation on \(K\) as follows: two different points \(x\) and \(y\) of \(K\) are equivalent iff there exists an element of a conjugacy class from \(\gamma\) such that \(x\) and \(y\) are its fixed points. Let \(K_ \gamma\) be the quotient of \(K\) modulo this equivalence relation. The main result of the paper is the following Theorem: Let \(\gamma\) be an acylindric multiword such that all its elements are indecomposable and \(K_ \gamma\) can be embedded into \(S^ 2\). Then \(\gamma\) is represented by a union of simple disjoint curves on the boundary of a handlebody \(H\) with fundamental group \(G\). Here indecomposable means that there is no decomposition of \(G\) as a free product of two nontrivial subgroups \(A\) and \(B\) such that \(\gamma\) decomposes as a union of two multiwords \(\gamma_ A\) and \(\gamma_ B\) represented by a collection of elements of \(A\) and \(B\) respectively.