On the Abelianizations of congruence subgroups of \(\Aut(F_2)\). (Q453168)

Let \(\pi\colon F_n\to G\) be an epimorphism of the free group of rank~\(n\) onto a finite group. The `standard congruence subgroup of \(\Aut(F_n)\) associated to \(G\) and \(\varphi\)' is the group \(\Gamma(G,\pi)=\{\varphi\in\Aut(F_n)\mid\pi\varphi=\pi\}\). A subgroup of \(\Aut(F_n)\) containing some \(\Gamma(G,\pi)\) is called a `congruence subgroup' of \(\Aut(F_n)\). There is a representation \(\rho\colon\Aut(F_n)\to\Aut(F_n/F_n')\cong\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb Z)\). In the same way as \(\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb Z)\) can be considered instead of \(\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb Z)\) the `special automorphism group' \(\Aut^+(F_n)=\rho^{-1}(\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb Z))\) may be considered, and so the group \(\Gamma^+(G,\pi)=\Gamma(G,\pi)\cap\Aut^+(F_n)\) is the object of study in this paper. In the companion article [\textit{D. Appel} and \textit{E. Ribnere}, J. Algebra 321, No. 10, 2875-2889 (2009; Zbl 1178.20036)], the indices of \(\Gamma^+(G,\pi)\) in \(\Aut^+(F_n)\) are studied for \(n=2\); here the Abelianizations of \(\Gamma^+(G,\pi)\) are considered for \(n=2\). The first main result calculates \(\Gamma^+(G,\pi)^{\mathrm{ab}}\) for all Abelian groups \(G\) and the second shows that it is infinite when \(G\) is a non-perfect finite group.