Intersection of finitely generated surface groups (Q749657)

A group is said to have the finitely generated intersection property (briefly, FGIP) if the intersection of each pair of finitely generated subgroups is again finitely generated. Interest in this property dates from the result of \textit{A. G. Howson} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 29, 428-434 (1954; Zbl 0056.021)] that free groups have FGIP. In fact Howson gave a bound for the rank of \(A\cap B\) in terms of the ranks m,n of subgroups A,B of a free group, slightly improved successively by Hanna Neumann and the reviewer to: \[ rank(A\cap B)\leq 2(m-1)(n-1)-\min \{m-2,n-2\}. \] \textit{L. Greenberg} [Can. J. Math. 12, 415-426 (1960; Zbl 0096.021)] showed that for every connected surface S the fundamental group \(\pi_ 1(S)\) has FGIP. (This result has since been extended by group-theoretic means to a rather wider class of groups.) Using 2-dimensional hyperbolic geometry and arguments based on certain ideas of Gersten's and Stallings', the author of the present paper establishes the following analogue of the above bound for subgroups A,B of ranks m,n of \(\pi_ 1(S):\) \[ rank(A\cap B)\leq 20700(m-1)(n-1)+1. \] Theorem 2 states the existence of such ``intersection estimate'' functions for certain Kleinian groups. An analogous bound in the case of a free product H*K of groups with FGIP is also obtained: \[ rank(A\cap B)\leq [18(m-1)(n- 1)+1]\max \{f_ H(m,n),f_ K(m,n)\}, \] where \(f_ H(m,n)\), \(f_ K(m,n)\) are upper estimates for the ranks of intersections of pairs of subgroups of ranks m,n in H,K respectively (i.e. ``intersection estimate'' functions for H,K).