Milnor invariants of braids and welded braids up to homotopy (Q6592997)

For any set \(X\), the free group on \(X\) is denoted by \(F[X]\), while the presentation \[RF[X]=\langle X\,|\, [x,x^w]=1, x\in X,\, w\in F[X]\rangle\] defines the \textit{reduced free group} on \(X\), that is, the largest group generated by~\(X\) such that every element of \(X\) commutes with all its conjugates. If \(|X|=n\), then one simply writes \(F_n\) and \(RF_n\) instead of \(F[X]\) and \(RF[X]\), respectively. A \textit{basis-conjugating} automorphism of \(RF[X]\) is an automorphism \(\alpha\) of \(RF[X]\) such that~\(x^\alpha\) is conjugate to \(x\) for every \(x\in X\). The main result of the paper (Theorem 3.1) is the following recursive decomposition for the group \(hP\Sigma_n\) of all basis-conjugating automorphisms of \(RF_n\): \[hP\Sigma_n\simeq \left[\left(\prod_{i<n}\mathcal N(x_n)/x_i\right)\rtimes (RF_n/x_n)\right]\rtimes hP\Sigma_{n-1},\] where \(\mathcal N(x_n)/x_i\) is the normal closure of \(x_n\) in \(RF_n/x_i\), the action of \(RF_n/x_n\simeq RF_{n-1}\) on the product is the diagonal one, and the semidirect product on the right is an \textit{almost direct} one, which means that the action on the abelianization is trivial. As a consequence, the author shows that the Andreadakis equality holds for \(hP\Sigma_n\) (Theorem 3.1).\N\NFinally, a presentation for \(hP\Sigma_n\) is given and it turns out that three more families need to be added to the McCool relations for the basis-conjugating automorphism group of the free group \(F_n\) (Theorem 5.8).