English

Folding free-group automorphisms

Group Theory 2014-06-27 v2

Abstract

We describe an algorithm that uses Stallings' folding technique to decompose an element of Aut(Fn)Aut(F_n) as a product of Whitehead automorphisms (and hence as a product of Nielsen transformations.) We use this to give an alternative method of finding a finite generating set for the subgroup of Aut(Fn)Aut(F_n) that fixes a subset YY of the basis elements, and the subgroup that fixes each element of YY up to conjugacy. We show that the intersection of this latter subgroup with IAnIA_n is also finitely generated.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1111.6794,
  title  = {Folding free-group automorphisms},
  author = {Richard D. Wade},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.6794},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

12 pages, 4 figures. Final draft. To appear in The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:43:13.597Z