Related papers: Growth of Primitive Elements in Free Groups
Let A be any set of positive integers and n a positive integer. A composition of n with parts in A is an ordered collection of one or more elements in A whose sum is n. We derive generating functions for the number of compositions of n with…
This is a survey of two papers joint with A. Borisov and a paper joint with I. Spakulova. It is based on my lectures at the conference "Groups St. Andrews 2009", Bath (August 2009). We prove that almost all 1-related groups with at least 3…
A word~$w$ has a border $u$ if $u$ is a non-empty proper prefix and suffix of $u$. A word~$w$ is said to be \emph{closed} if $w$ is of length at most $1$ or if $w$ has a border that occurs exactly twice in $w$. A word~$w$ is said to be…
This paper, which is the last of a series of three papers, studies dynamical properties of elements of $\mathrm{Out}(F_{\tt n})$, the outer automorphism group of a nonabelian free group $F_{\tt n}$. We prove that, for every subgroup $H$ of…
We give a complete characterization of countable primitive groups in several settings including linear groups, subgroups of mapping class groups, groups acting minimally on trees and convergence groups. The latter category includes as a…
We investigate questions related to the presence of primitive words and Lyndon words in automatic and linearly recurrent sequences. We show that the Lyndon factorization of a k-automatic sequence is itself k-automatic. We also show that the…
We prove that if L is a finite simple group of Lie type and A a symmetric set of generators of L, then A grows i.e |AAA| > |A|^{1+epsilon} where epsilon depends only on the Lie rank of L, or AAA=L. This implies that for a family of simple…
In a Coxeter group $W$, an element is fully commutative if any two of its reduced expressions can be linked by a series of commutation of adjacent letters. These elements have particularly nice combinatorial properties, and also index a…
If a finitely generated torsion free group K has the property that all finitely generated subgroups S of K are either small or have growth constant bounded uniformly away from 1 then a non proper HNN extension G of K, that is a semidirect…
We study the $k$-Bonacci word over the infinite alphabet $\mathbb{N}$. Since the alphabet is infinite, the usual factor complexity is infinite and does not provide any information. We therefore investigate factor occurrence statistics in…
This paper presents an analysis of primitive permutation groups of degree $3p$, where $p$ is a prime number, analogous to H. Wielandt's treatment of groups of degree $2p$. It is also intended as an example of the systematic use of…
Many finite groups, including all finite non-abelian simple groups, can be symmetrically generated by involutions. In this paper we give an algorithm to symmetrically represent elements of finite groups and to transform symmetrically…
Let $q$ be a prime power of a prime $p$, $n$ a positive integer and $\mathbb F_{q^n}$ the finite field with $q^n$ elements. The $k-$normal elements over finite fields were introduced and characterized by Huczynska et al (2013). Under the…
This paper studies a subset of the free semi-group $F_k$ with letters in a field $k$ which has some interesting arithmetic and combinatorial properties.
For any $k>1$, we find the asymptotics of the counting function of $k$-th power-free elements in an additive arithmetic semigroup with exponential growth of the abstract prime counting function. This paper continues the authors' earlier…
Enumerating the number of times one word occurs in another is a much-studied combinatorial subject. By utilizing a method that we call ``lexicographic extreme referencing'', we provide a formula for computing occurrences of one binary word…
Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be the finite field of $q$ elements, and let $k\mid q-1$ be a positive integer. Let $f(x)=ax^2+bx+c$ be a quadratic polynomial in $\mathbb{F}_q[x]$ with $b^2-4ac\ne0$. In this paper, we show that if…
Let $p$ be a prime. If an integer $g$ generates a subgroup of index $t$ in $(\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z)^*,$ then we say that $g$ is a $t$-near primitive root modulo $p$. We point out the easy result that each primitive residue class contains a…
We prove that if $L=\mbox{}^2F_4(2^{2n+1})'$ and $x$ is a nonidentity automorphism of $L$ then $G=\langle L,x\rangle$ has four elements conjugate to $x$ that generate $G$. This result is used to study the following conjecture about the…
Consider arbitrarily parenthesized expressions on the $k$ variables $x_0, x_1, ..., x_{k-1}$, where each $x_i$ appears exactly once and in the order of their indices. We call these expressions {\em formal $k$--products}. $F^\sigma(k)$…