Automorphisms of graphs of cyclic splittings of free groups. (Q744911)

Let \(F_n\) be the free group of rank \(n\) where \(n\geq 3\) and \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\) its outer automorphism group. A \textit{splitting} of \(F_n\) is a simplicial tree on which \(F_n\) acts by simplicial automorphisms with no proper invariant subtree. Let \(FZ_n\) be the graph of cyclic splittings of \(F_n\), i.e. the graph whose vertices are the equivalence classes of splittings of \(F_n\) (under a certain equivalence relation) whose edge stabilizers are cyclic subgroups of \(F_n\). Splittings \(T\) and \(T'\) are joined by an edge if \(T\) is a proper refinement of \(T'\), which means that \(T'\) is obtained by equivariantly collapsing some of the edges of \(T\) to points. Let \(FZ_n^{\max}\) be the graph of maximally cyclic splittings of \(F_n\), defined analogously with the extra assumption that edge stabilizers in the splittings are closed under taking roots. The graph \(VS_n\) of very small splittings of \(F_n\) consists of maximally-cyclic splittings which are additionally required to have trivial tripod stabilizers. It is shown: Theorem A: For all \(n\geq 3\) the natural maps from \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\) to the isometry groups of \(FZ_n\), \(FZ_n^{\max}\) and \(VS_n\) are isomorphisms.