Explicit solutions of certain orientable quadratic equations in free groups

Abstract: For

g g e q 1

denote by

F_{2 g} = l a n g l e x_{1}, y_{1}, d o t s, x_{g}, y_{g} a n g l e

the free group on

2 g

generators and by

B_{g} = [x_{1}, y_{1}] d o t s [x_{g}, y_{g}]

. For

l, c g e q 1

and elements

w_{1}, d o t s, w_{l} i n F_{2 g}

we study orientable quadratic equations of the form

[u_{1}, v_{1}] d o t s [u_{h}, v_{h}] = (B_{g}^{w_{1}})^{c} (B_{g}^{w_{2}})^{c} d o t s (B_{g}^{w_{l}})^{c}

with unknowns

u_{1}, v_{1}, d o t s, u_{h}, v_{h}

and provide explicit solutions for them for the minimal possible number

h

. In the particular case when

g = 1

,

w_{i} = y_{1}^{i - 1}

for

i = 1, d o t s, l

and

h

the minimal number which satisfies

h g e q l (c - 1) / 2 + 1

we provide two types of solutions depending on the image of the subgroup

H = l a n g l e u_{1}, v_{1}, d o t s, u_{h}, v_{h} a n g l e

generated by the solution under the natural homomorphism

p : F_{2} o F_{2} / [F_{2}, F_{2}]

: the first solution, which is called a primitive solution, satisfies

p (H) = F_{2} / [F_{2}, F_{2}]

, the second solution satisfies

. We also provide an explicit solution of the equation

for

k > l g e q 0

in

F_{2}

, and prove that if

l e q 0

, then every solution of this equation is primitive. As a geometrical consequence, for every solution we obtain a map

f : S_{h} o T

from the orientable surface

S_{h}

of genus

h

to the torus

T = S_{1}

which has the minimal number of roots among all maps from the homotopy class of

f

. Depending on the number

| p (F_{2}) : p (H) |

such maps have fundamentally different geometric properties: in some cases they satisfy the Wecken property and in other cases not.

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