Primitive words, free factors and measure preservation. (Q466065)

Let \(F_k\) be the free group on \(k\) generators. An element \(w\in F_k\) is primitive if it belongs to some basis of \(F_k\); a subgroup \(H\leq F_k\) is a free factor of \(F_k\) if there is another group \(H'\) such that \(H*H'=F_k\). The first main theorem gives a graph theoretic condition for a finitely generated subgroup \(H\) of \(F_k\) to be a free factor of another such group \(J\). Namely, that in a particular graph (defined in terms of core graphs) the distance between vertices corresponding to \(H\) and \(J\) is equal to the difference in their ranks. Since this distance can be explicitly computed, the theorem provides an algorithm (given in an appendix) for determining if \(H\) is a free factor of \(J\) and which, in particular, can be used to detect primitive words. An element \(w\in F_k\) (resp. finitely generated subgroup \(H\) of \(F_k\)) is measure preserving if for every finite group \(G\) and every homomorphism \(\alpha_G\in\Hom(F_k,G)\) chosen uniformly at random we have that \(\alpha_G(w)\) (resp. \(\alpha_G|_H\)) is uniformly distributed over \(G\) (resp. in \(\Hom(H,G)\)). Various authors have made the following conjecture: (i) for any finitely generated subgroup \(H\) of \(F_k\), \(H\) is a free factor of \(F_k\) if and only if \(H\) is measure preserving; (ii) in particular, for every \(w\in F_k\), \(w\) is primitive if and only if \(w\) is measure preserving. The second main theorem supports this conjecture. Specifically, it proves part (i) when \(H\) has rank at least \(k-1\) and proves (ii) for \(k=2\). The proof relies on the first main theorem. A corollary is that the set of primitive elements in \(F_2\) is closed in the profinite topology. It is mentioned that the method of proof of the second main theorem may be powerful enough to prove the conjecture in its entirety, and that has since been shown to be the case: the article [\textit{D. Puder} and \textit{O. Parzanchevski}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 28, No. 1, 63-97 (2015; Zbl 1402.20042)] proves the conjecture using this approach.