Related papers: On Primitive Words I: A New Algorithm

Let F_k be the free group on k generators. A word w \in F_k is called primitive if it belongs to some basis of F_k. We investigate two criteria for primitivity, and consider more generally, subgroups of F_k which are free factors. The first…

We establish new characterizations of primitive elements and free factors in free groups, which are based on the distributions they induce on finite groups. For every finite group $G$, a word $w$ in the free group on $k$ generators induces…

We develop a refinement of Whitehead's algorithm for primitive words in a free group. We generalize to subgroups, establishing a strengthened version of Whitehead's algorithm for free factors. We make use of these refinements in proving new…

We revisit the problem of deciding whether a finitely generated subgroup H is a free factor of a given free group F. Known algorithms solve this problem in time polynomial in the sum of the lengths of the generators of H and exponential in…

In the free group $F_k$, an element is said to be primitive if it belongs to a free generating set. In this paper, we describe what a generic primitive element looks like. We prove that up to conjugation, a random primitive word of length…

The Whitehead minimization problem consists in finding a minimum size element in the automorphic orbit of a word, a cyclic word or a finitely generated subgroup in a finite rank free group. We give the first fully polynomial algorithm to…

For a free group $F_r$ of finite rank $r\ge 2$ and a nontrivial element $w\in F_r$ the \emph{primitivity rank} $\pi(w)$ is the smallest rank of a subgroup $H\le F_r$ such that $w\in H$ and that $w$ is not primitive in $H$ (if no such $H$…

We show that the following problems are decidable in a rank 2 free group F_2: does a given finitely generated subgroup H contain primitive elements? and does H meet the orbit of a given word u under the action of G, the group of…

We give a description of elementary subgroups (in the sense of first-order logic) of finitely generated virtually free groups. In particular, we recover the fact that elementary subgroups of finitely generated free groups are free factors.…

Let $K$ be a field and $F$ a free group. By a classical result of Cohn and Lewin, the free group algebra $K\left[F\right]$ is a free ideal ring (FIR): a ring over which the submodules of free modules are themselves free, and of a…

In this note we give a new proof of the fact that an elementary subgroup (in the sense of first-order theory) of a non abelian free group $\mathbb{F}$ must be a free factor. The proof is based on definability of orbits of elements of under…

Let $F= < a,b>$ be a rank two free group. A word $W(a,b)$ in $F$ is {\sl primitive} if it, along with another group element, generates the group. It is a {\sl palindrome} (with respect to $a$ and $b$) if it reads the same forwards and…

We describe a deterministic algorithm for finding a generating element of the multiplicative group of the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{p^n}$ where $p$ is a prime. In time polynomial in $p$ and $n$, the algorithm either outputs an element that…

The centrepiece of this paper is a normal form for primitive elements which facilitates the use of induction arguments to prove properties of primitive elements. The normal form arises from an elementary algorithm for constructing a…

Let $H$ be an HD0L-system. We show that there are only finitely many primitive words $v$ with the property that $v^k$, for all integers $k$, is an element of the factorial language of $H$. In particular, this result applies to the set of…

By strengthening known results about primitivity-blocking words in free groups, we prove that for any nontrivial element w of a free group of finite rank, there are words that cannot be subwords of any cyclically reduced automorphic image…

This work considers a natural generalization of primitivity with respect to a language. Given a language $L$, a nonempty word $w$ is said to be $L$-primitive if $w$ is not a proper power of any word in $L$. After ascertaining the number of…

Let $G$ be the fundamental group of a graph of finitely generated virtually free groups with virtually cyclic edge groups. We shaw that $G$ is cohomologically good if $G$ is residually finite. If $G$ is LERF, we prove that G splits…

We study endomorphisms of a free group of finite rank by means of their action on specific sets of elements. In particular, we prove that every endomorphism of the free group of rank 2 which preserves an automorphic orbit (i.e., acts ``like…

We provide an algorithm that, given a finite set of generators for a subgroup $H$ of a finitely generated free group $F$, determines whether $H$ is echelon or not and, in case of affirmative answer, also computes a basis with respect to…