Current twisting and nonsingular matrices. (Q424810)

A well-known result of Papadopoulos asserts that under the homology representation of the mapping class group \(\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)\to\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb Z)\), the coset of any matrix \(A\in\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb Z)\) contains a pseudo-Anosov mapping class. In the paper under review, the authors prove the analogous fact for the homology representation of the outer automorphism group of the free group \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\to\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb Z)\) for \(n\geq 3\). They show that the coset of any matrix \(A\in\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb Z)\) contains a fully irreducible automorphism of the free group. The proof of the main result mirrors the proof given by Papadopoulos, after noting the appropriate analogues of notions from surface theory in the context of automorphisms of free groups.