Translation lengths in Out(F_n).

DOI10.1023/A:1019695003668MaRDI QIDQ698120zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Emina Alibegović

Publication date 18 September 2002

Published in Geometriae Dedicata (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0009191

zbMATH Keywords

elements of infinite orderfinitely generated groupsfree groupsfundamental groupsouter automorphismssolvable subgroupstranslation lengthsvirtually Abelian groupsword metrics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Free nonabelian groups (20E05) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Automorphism groups of groups (20F28) Fundamental groups and their automorphisms (group-theoretic aspects) (20F34) Topological methods in group theory (57M07)

Abstract: We prove that all elements of infinite order in $Out(F_n)$ have positive translation lengths; moreover, they are bounded away from zero. Consequences include a new proof that solvable subgroups of $Out(F_n)$ are finitely generated and virtually abelian and the new result that such subgroups are quasi-convex.

Review text

Let \(G\) be a finitely generated group with a finite generating set \(X\). Let \(||g||\) denote the word length of \(g\in G\) associated to \(X\). Following Gersten and Short the author defines the translation length of an element \(g\in G\) as \(\lim_{n\to\infty}||g^n||/n\). The author proves that all elements of infinite order in the group \(\text{Out}(F_n)\) of all outer automorphisms of the free group \(F_n\) of finite rank \(n\geq 2\) have positive translation lengths bounded away from zero. It follows a new proof that solvable subgroups of \(\text{Out}(F_n)\) are finitely generated and virtually Abelian. Previously Farb, Lubotzky and Minsky had proved that Dehn twists (more generally, all elements of infinite order) in the mapping class group \(Mod(\Sigma_g)\) of a surface \(\Sigma_g\) have positive translation lengths. These authors used in their proof the intersection numbers. Such an approach cannot work in the case of \(\text{Out}(F_n)\) as we do not have an analogue of the intersection number.

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Cited in

(23)

• Thick metric spaces, relative hyperbolicity, and quasi-isometric rigidity.
• A hyperbolic \(\text{Out}(F_n)\)-complex.
• Aspects of non positive curvature for linear groups with no infinite order unipotents
• The Dehn functions of \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\) and \(\Aut(F_n)\).
• Lipschitz retraction and distortion for subgroups of \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\).
• Length 2 variables of \(A[x,y]\) and transfer
• The geometry of the handlebody groups I: Distortion
• Actions of higher-rank lattices on free groups.
• Relative twisting in outer space
• The expansion factors of an outer automorphism and its inverse
• Word length in surface groups with characteristic generating sets
• Distortion for abelian subgroups of \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\)
• Divergence, undistortion and Hölder continuous cocycle superrigidity for full shifts
• Translation lengths of outer automorphisms of finitely generated free-by-finite groups
• Cofinitely Hopfian groups, open mappings and knot complements.
• Distortion and Tits alternative in smooth mapping class groups
• Endomorphisms of mapping tori
• Uniform undistortion from barycentres and applications to hierarchically hyperbolic groups
• Roots of outer automorphisms of free groups and centralizers of abelian subgroups of \(\mathrm{Out}(F_N)\)
• The Tits alternative for the automorphism group of a free product
• Translation lengths in crossing and contact graphs of quasi-median graphs
• Distortion element in the automorphism group of a full shift
• Distortion elements in group actions on surfaces

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