Algebraic laminations for free products and arational trees

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Publication:2279058



Abstract: This work is the first step towards a description of the Gromov boundary of the free factor graph of a free product, with applications to subgroup classification for outer automorphisms. We extend the theory of algebraic laminations dual to trees, as developed by Coulbois, Hilion, Lustig and Reynolds, to the context of free products; this also gives us an opportunity to give a unified account of this theory. We first show that any mathbbR-tree with dense orbits in the boundary of the corresponding outer space can be reconstructed as a quotient of the boundary of the group by its dual lamination. We then describe the dual lamination in terms of a band complex on compact mathbbR-trees (generalizing Coulbois-Hilion-Lustig's compact heart), and we analyze this band complex using versions of the Rips machine and of the Rauzy-Veech induction. An important output of the theory is that the above map from the boundary of the group to the mathbbR-tree is 2-to-1 almost everywhere. A key point for our intended application is a unique duality result for arational trees. It says that if two trees have a leaf in common in their dual laminations, and if one of the trees is arational and relatively free, then they are equivariantly homeomorphic. This statement is an analogue of a result in the free group saying that if two trees are dual to a common current and one of the trees is free arational, then the two trees are equivariantly homeomorphic. However, we notice that in the setting of free products, the continuity of the pairing between trees and currents fails. For this reason, in all this paper, we work with laminations rather than with currents.


In analogy to curve complexes used to study mapping class groups of surfaces, the free factor graph of a free group \(F_n\) has recently turned to be fruitful in the study of Out(\(F_n\)). It is Gromov hyperbolic, as was proved by \textit{M. Bestvina} and \textit{M. Feighn} [Adv. Math. 256, 104--155 (2014; Zbl 1348.20028)], and the action of an automorphism of \(F_n\) is loxodromic if and only if it is fully irreducible. Its Gromov boundary was described by \textit{M. Bestvina} and \textit{P. Reynolds} [Duke Math. J. 164, No. 11, 2213--2251 (2015; Zbl 1337.20040)] and \textit{U. Hamenstädt} [``The boundary of the free splitting graph and the free factor graph, Preprint, \url{arXiv:1211.1630}] as the set of equivalence classes of arational trees. The main goal of the paper under review is to extend the theory of algebraic laminations to the context of free products. A key point for this intended application says that if two trees have a leaf in common in their dual laminations, and if one of the trees is arational and relatively free, then they are equivariantly homeomorphic.



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