Explicit bounds for fixed subgroups of endomorphisms of free products (Q6170777)

Let \(F_{n}\) be the free group of rank \(n\), \(\varphi \in \mathrm{End}(G)\) and let \(\mathrm{Fix}(\varphi)=\{x \in F_{n} \mid \varphi(x)=x \}\) be the fixed subgroup of \(\varphi\). In 1975, \textit{J. L. Dyer} and \textit{G. P. Scott} [Commun. Algebra 3, 195--201 (1975; Zbl 0304.20029)] proved that for a finite order automorphism \(\varphi\) of \(F_{n}\), the rank \(\mathrm{rk}(\mathrm{Fix}(\varphi))\) of the fixed subgroup is not greater than \(n\). Moreover, Scott conjectured that \(\mathrm{rk}(\mathrm{Fix}(\varphi)) \leq n\) for any \(\varphi \in \mathrm{Aut}(F_{n})\), which is the so-called Scott conjecture. The conjecture was solved by \textit{S. M. Gersten} [Adv. Math. 64, 51--85 (1987; Zbl 0616.20014)], soon after, this was extended by \textit{W. Imrich} and \textit{E. C. Turner} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 105, No. 3, 421--422 (1989; Zbl 0675.20024)] to consider endomorphisms of free groups, with the same strong conclusion. The paper under review is dedicated to the study of fixed subgroups of endomorphisms of free products, focusing on explicit bounds for their ranks.