The conjugacy problem for UPG elements of Out(F_n)

Abstract:

O u t (F_{n}) := A u t (F_{n}) / I n n (F_{n})

denotes the outer automorphism group of the rank

n

free group

F_{n}

. An element

p h i

of

O u t (F_{n})

is polynomially growing if the word lengths of conjugacy classes in

F_{n}

grow at most polynomially under iteration by

p h i

. We restrict attention to the subset

U P G (F_{n})

of

O u t (F_{n})

consisting of polynomially growing elements whose action on

H_{1} (F_{n}, Z)

is unipotent. In particular, if

p h i

is polynomially growing and acts trivially on

H_{1} (F_{n}, Z_{3})

then

p h i

is in

U P G (F_{n})

and also every polynomially growing element of

O u t (F_{n})

has a positive power that is in

U P G (F_{n})

. In this paper we solve the conjugacy problem for

U P G (F_{n})

. Specifically we construct an algorithm that takes as input

p h i, p s i i n U P G (F_{n})

and outputs YES or NO depending on whether or not there is

h e t a i n O u t (F_{n})

such that

p s i = h e t a p h i h e t a^{- 1}

. Further, if YES then such a

h e t a

is produced.

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