On the self-intersections of curves deep in the lower central series of a surface group (Q605061)

Let \(\Sigma \) be an orientable surface with or without boundary. The authors give various estimates of the minimal number of self-intersections of a curve corresponding to a non-trivial element of the \(k\)th term of the lower central series and derived series of the fundamental group of \(\Sigma \). The lower bound for the lower central series has as immediate consequence a new topological proof of the fact that free groups and fundamental groups of closed orientable surfaces are residually nilpotent. Along the way the authors show that a nontrivial element of the \(k\)th term of the lower central series of a nonabelian free group has to have word length at least \(k\) in a free generating set.