Related papers: Algorithmic detectability of iwip automorphisms

In \cite{Ka14} we produced an algorithm for deciding whether or not an element $\phi\in Out(F_N)$ is an iwip ("fully irreducible") automorphism. At several points that algorithm was rather inefficient as it involved some general enumeration…

We provide an effective algorithm for determining whether an element of the outer automorphism group of a free group is fully irreducible. Our method produces a finite list which can be checked for periodic proper free factors.

Let $G$ be a finitely generated group with an automorphism $\varphi\in{\rm Aut}(G)$, or an outer automorphism $\phi\in{\rm Out}(G)$. Suppose that $G$ decomposes into simpler pieces on which the growth behaviour of $\varphi$ and $\phi$ is…

For a field $k$ of characteristic $0$, we present an algorithm for deciding if a morphism $\phi:k[X_1,...,X_m]\to k[X_1,...,X_m]$ has an inverse. The algorithm also shows how to find the inverse when it exists.

We study the notion of irreducibility of semigroup morphisms. Given an alphabet $\Sigma$, a morphism $\varphi:\Sigma^+\rightarrow\Sigma^+$ is irreducible if any factorisation $\varphi=\psi_2\circ\psi_1$ can only be satisfied if $\psi_1$ or…

Polytopic matrix factorization (PMF) is a recently introduced matrix decomposition method in which the data vectors are modeled as linear transformations of samples from a polytope. The successful recovery of the original factors in the…

Given a finite abelian group $G$ and elements $x, y \in G$, we prove that there exists $\phi \in \text{Aut}(G)$ such that $\phi(x) = y$ if and only if $G/\langle x \rangle \cong G/\langle y \rangle$. This result leads to our development of…

We give an algorithm for finding the index of a positive outer automorphism of the free group, and prove the algorithm exits in a finite time.

Let $F_n$ be the free group of a finite rank $n$. We study orbits $Orb_{\phi}(u)$, where $u$ is an element of the group $F_n$, under the action of an automorphism $\phi$. If an orbit like that is finite, we determine precisely what its…

We introduce a new class of automorphisms $\varphi$ of the non-abelian free group $F_N$ of finite rank $N \geq 2$ which contains all iwips (= fully irreducible automorphisms), but also any automorphism induced by a pseudo-Anosov…

For any choice of a basis $\cal A$ the free group $F_N$ of finite rank $N \geq 2$ can be canonically identified with the set $F(\cal A)$ of reduced words in $\cal A\cup \cal A^{-1}$. However, such a word $w \in F(\cal A)$ admits a second…

We give a classification of iwip outer automorphisms of the free group, by discussing the properties of their attracting and repelling trees.

We generalize the combinatorial approaches of Rapaport and Higgins--Lyndon to the Whitehead algorithm. We show that for every automorphism $\varphi$ of a free group $F$ and every word $u\in F$ there exists a finite multiset of words…

An outer automorphism of a free group is geometric if it can be represented by a homeomorphism of a compact surface. Bestvina and Handel gave an algorithmic characterization of geometric irreducible outer automorphisms using relative train…

Let $F_n$ be a free group of rank $n$. In this paper we discuss three algorithmic problems related to automorphisms of $F_2$. A word $u$ of $F_n$ is called positive if $u$ does not have negative exponents. A word $u$ in $F_n$ is called…

Let $\phi$ be an automorphism of a free group $F_n$ of rank $n$, and let $M_{\phi}=F_n \rtimes_{\phi} \mathbb{Z}$ be the corresponding mapping torus of $\phi$. We study the group $Out(M_{\phi})$ under certain technical conditions on $\phi$.…

The main result of this paper is an algorithmic answer to the question raised in the title, up to replacing the given $\hat{\phi} \in Out(F_n)$ by a positive power. In order to provide this algorithm, it is shown that every polynomially…

We give an algorithm to determine if the dynamical system generated by a positive automorphism of the free group can also be generated by a self-induced interval exchange transformation. The algorithm effectively yields the interval…

We prove that the isomorphism problem for finitely generated fully residually free groups is decidable. We also show that each finitely generated fully residually free group G has a decomposition that is invariant under automorphisms of G,…

We consider the action of an irreducible outer automorphism $\phi$ on the closure of Culler--Vogtmann Outer space. This action has north-south dynamics and so, under iteration, points converge exponentially to $[T^\phi_+]$. For each $N \geq…