Related papers: A note on test elements for monomorphisms of free …
Let $G$ be a group. An element $g \in G$ is called a test element of $G$ if for every endomorphism $\varphi:G \to G$, $\varphi(g)=g$ implies that $\varphi$ is an automorphism. We prove that for a finitely generated profinite group $G$, $g…
J.H.C. Whitehead's second free-group algorithm determines whether or not two given elements of a free group lie in the same orbit of the automorphism group of the free group. The algorithm involves certain connected graphs, and Whitehead…
Elements of the free group define interesting maps, known as word maps, on groups. It was previously observed by Lubotzky that every subset of a finite simple group that is closed under endomorphisms occurs as the image of some word map. We…
Let F_m be a free group of a finite rank m > 1 and X_i, Y_j be elements in F_m. A non-empty word w(x_1,..., x_n) is called a C-test word in n letters for F_m if, whenever w(X_1,..., X_n)=w(Y_1,..., Y_n) not equal to 1, the two n-tuples…
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 describe the endomorphisms of the direct product of two free groups of finite rank and obtain conditions for which the subgroup of fixed points is finitely generated and we do the same for periodic points. We also describe the…
In this article, we study geometric properties of nilpotent groups. We find a geometric criterion for the word problem for the finitely generated free nilpotent groups. By geometric criterion, we mean a way to determine whether two words…
The monography examines the problem of constructing a group of automorphisms of a graph. A graph automorphism is a mapping of a set of vertices onto itself that preserves adjacency. The set of such automorphisms forms a vertex group of a…
A free Steiner quasigroup is a free object in the variety of Steiner quasigroups. Free Steiner quasigroups are characterised by the existence of a levelled construction that starts with a free base - that is, a set of elements none of which…
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 is a survey of recent progress in several areas of combinatorial algebra. We consider combinatorial problems about free groups, polynomial algebras, free associative and Lie algebras. Our main idea is to study automorphisms and, more…
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…
It is shown, for a given graph group $G$, that the fixed point subgroup Fix$\,\varphi$ is finitely generated for every endomorphism $\varphi$ of $G$ if and only if $G$ is a free product of free abelian groups. The same conditions hold for…
We give an easily checkable algebraic condition which implies that two elements of a finitely generated free group are members of distinct doubly-twisted conjugacy classes with respect to a pair of homomorphisms. We further show that this…
A word in a free group is called ``potentially positive'' if it is automorphic to an element which is written with only positive exponents. We will develop automata to analyze properties of potentially positive words. We will use these to…
To any free group automorphism, we associate a real pretree with several nice properties. First, it has a rigid/non-nesting action of the free group with trivial arc stabilizers. Secondly, there is an expanding pretree-automorphism of the…
One version of Whitehead's famous cut vertex lemma says that if an element of a free group is part of a free basis, then a certain graph associated to its conjugacy class that we call the star graph is either disconnected or has a cut…
In this survey, we describe recent progress on asymptotic properties of various automorphic orbits in free groups. In particular, we address the problem of counting potentially positive elements of a given length. We also discuss complexity…
The automorphism group of a particular free spectrahedron is determined via a novel argument involving algebraic methods.
We give a construction of a free digroup $F(X)$ on a set $X$ and formulate the halo and the group parts of $F(X)$. We prove that $F(X)$ is isomorphic to $F(Y)$ if and only if $card(X)=card(Y)$.