Related papers: On certain C-test words for free groups

We say that a finite factor $f$ of a word $w$ is \emph{imaged} if there exists a non-erasing morphism $m$, distinct from the identity, such that $w$ contains $m(f)$. We show that every infinite word contains an imaged factor of length at…

Let m, n be positive integers, v a multilinear commutator word and w = v^m. We prove that if G is a residually finite group in which all w-values are n-Engel, then the verbal subgroup w(G) is locally nilpotent. We also examine the question…

Let $A_1,...,A_k$ be a system of free factors of $F_n$. The group of relative automorphisms $Aut(F_n;A_1,...,A_k)$ is the group given by the automorphisms of $F_n$ that restricted to each $A_i$ are conjugations by elements in $F_n$. The…

The automorphism group of a finitely generated free group is the normal closure of a single element of order 2. If $m$ is less than $n$ then a homomorphism $Aut(F_n)\to Aut(F_m)$ can have cardinality at most 2. More generally, this is true…

Let $F$ be a free group. We present for arbitrary $g\in\mathbb{N}$ a LogSpace (and thus polynomial time) algorithm that determines whether a given $w\in F$ is a product of at most $g$ commutators; and more generally an algorithm that…

We show that, if $w_1, \ldots , w_6$ are words which are not an identity of any (non-abelian) finite simple group, then $w_1(G)w_2(G) \cdots w_6(G) = G$ for all (non-abelian) finite simple groups $G$. In particular, for every word $w$,…

Let n be an even positive integer and F be the field \GF(2). A word in F^n is called balanced if its Hamming weight is n/2. A subset C \subseteq F^n$ is called a balancing set if for every word y \in F^n there is a word x \in C such that y…

Let w be a group word. It is conjectured that if w has only countably many values in a profinite group G, then the verbal subgroup w(G) is finite. In the present paper we confirm the conjecture in the cases where w is a multilinear…

In this paper, we study the fibers of "automorphic word maps", a certain generalization of word maps, on finite groups and on nonabelian finite simple groups in particular. As an application, we derive a structural restriction on finite…

We prove a rigidity theorem for the geometry of the unit ball in random subspaces of the scl norm in B_1^H of a free group. In a free group F of rank k, a random word w of length n (conditioned to lie in [F,F]) has scl(w)=log(2k-1)n/6log(n)…

Let G be a complex affine algebraic reductive group, and let K be a maximal compact subgroup of G. Fix elements h_1,...,h_m in K. For n greater than or equal to 0, let X (respectively, Y) be the space of equivalence classes of…

We call the family of free-by-cyclic groups defined by $G = \left< a, t, b_1, b_2, \ldots b_k \mid at = ta, b_1^{-1}tb_1 = a^{n_1}t, \ldots b_k^{-1}tb_k = a^{n_k}t \right>$ for $n_1, n_2, \ldots n_k \in \mathbb Z$ linearly mismatched since…

Using a new approach involving embedding spaces in II$_1$ factors with plenty of freely independent Haar unitaries, we prove that $C^\ast_r(\mathbb{F}_n)\ncong C^\ast_r(\mathbb{F}_m)$ for $n \neq m$. This recovers the seminal result of…

We show that the compressed word problem in a finitely-generated fully residually free group (F -group) is decidable in polynomial time, and use the result to show that the word problem in the automorphism group of such a group is decidable…

A word $\sigma=\sigma_1...\sigma_n$ over the alphabet $[k]=\{1,2,...,k\}$ is said to be {\em smooth} if there are no two adjacent letters with difference greater than 1. A word $\sigma$ is said to be {\em smooth cyclic} if it is a smooth…

We prove new separability results about free groups. Namely, if $H_1, \ldots , H_k$ are infinite index, finitely generated subgroups of a non-abelian free group $F$, then there exists a homomorphism onto some alternating group $f:F…

We construct the first II_1 factors having exactly two group measure space decompositions up to unitary conjugacy. Also, for every positive integer $n$, we construct a II_1 factor $M$ that has exactly $n$ group measure space decompositions…

By the classic results of Fricke and Klein, for every word $w$ in the free group $F(a,b)$ there exists a unique integer \it{trace polynomial} $f_w(x,y,z)\in Z[x,y,z]$ such that $Tr(w(A,B))=f_w(Tr A,Tr B,Tr AB)$. for all $A,B\in SL(2,C)$. We…

We give a positive answer, in the measurable-group-theory context, to von Neumann's problem of knowing whether a non-amenable countable discrete group contains a non-cyclic free subgroup. We also get an embedding result of the free-group…

Let $q$ be a prime. Let $G$ be a residually finite group satisfying an identity. Suppose that for every $x \in G$ there exists a $q$-power $m=m(x)$ such that the element $x^m$ is a bounded Engel element. We prove that $G$ is locally…