Roots of outer automorphisms of free groups and centralizers of abelian subgroups of \mathrm{Out}(F_N)

Publication date 15 December 2022

Abstract: Let

N g e q 2

and let

m a t h r m O u t (F_{N})

be the outer automorphism group of a nonabelian free group of rank

N

. Let

m a t h r m {I A}_{N} (m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

be the finite index subgroup of

m a t h r m O u t (F_{N})

which is the kernel of the natural action of

m a t h r m O u t (F_{N})

on

H_{1} (F_{N}, m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

. We show that

m a t h r m {I A}_{N} (m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

is an

R

-group, that is, for every

p h i, p s i i n m a t h r m {I A}_{N} (m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

, if there exists

k i n m a t h b b N^{*}

such that

p h i^{k} = p s i^{k}

, then

p h i = p s i

. This answers a question of Handel and Mosher. We then use the fact that

m a t h r m {I A}_{N} (m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

is an

R

-group in order to prove that the normalizer in

m a t h r m {I A}_{N} (m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

of every abelian subgroup of

m a t h r m {I A}_{N} (m a t h b b Z / 3 m a t h b b Z)

is equal to its centralizer. We finally give an alternative proof of a result, due to Feighn and Handel, that the centralizer of an element of

m a t h r m O u t (F_{N})

which has only finitely many periodic orbits of conjugacy classes of maximal cyclic subgroups of

F_{N}

is virtually abelian.

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