Related papers: A Remark on "Counting primitive elements in free g…
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…
It is well known that every finite simple group can be generated by two elements and this leads to a wide range of problems that have been the focus of intensive research in recent years. In this survey article we discuss some of the…
We describe groups elementarily equivalent to a free metabelian group with n generators. We also explore an exponentiation that naturally occurs in metabelian groups.
Grigorchuk and de la Harpe asked if there are many groups with growth exponent close to that of the free group with the same number of generators. We prove that this is in fact the case for a generic group (in the density model of random…
We present a sharp upper bound for the number of generators of a finite group in terms of the ratio between the order and the exponent.
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…
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…
Factors $\frac{X}{Y}$ in a free group $F$ with $Y$ normal in $X$ are considered. Precise results on the free structure of ${Y}$ relative to the free structure of ${X}$ when $\frac{X}{Y}$ is abelian are obtained. Some extensions and…
For the free group $F_r$ on $r>1$ generators (respectively, the free product $G_1 * G_2$ of two nontrivial finite groups $G_1$ and $G_2$), we obtain the asymptotic for the number of conjugacy classes of commutators in $F_r$ (respectively,…
This paper studies the free group of rank two from the point of view of Stallings core graphs. The first half of the paper examines primitive elements in this group, giving new and self-contained proofs for various known results about them.…
Let $F$ be a field and let $E$ be an \'etale algebra over $F$, that is, a finite product of finite separable field extensions $E = F_1 \times \dots \times F_r$. The classical primitive element theorem asserts that if $r = 1$, then $E$ is…
Let $F_k$ be the free group on $k$ generators, and let $H\le J\le \F_k$ be subgroups of finite rank. We present a new elementary algorithm to determine whether $H$ is a free factor of $J$. In particular, this algorithm can determine whether…
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…
Let G be a group and S a subset of G that generates G. For each x in G define the length l_S(x) of x relative to S to be the minimal k such that x is a product of k elements of S. The supremum of the values l_S(x), x \in G, is called the…
We start by studying the distribution of (cyclically reduced) elements of the free groups with respect to their abelianization. We derive an explicit generating function, and a limiting distribution, by means of certain results (of…
In this expository note we provide a proof of Artin's theorem which states that the commutator subgroup of a free group on two generators is not finitely generated. The proof employs the infinite grid as in two other proofs in the…
We give a subexponential upper bound and a superpolynomial lower bound on the growth function of the Fabrykowski-Gupta group. As a consequence, we answer negatively a question by Longobardi, Maj and Rhemtulla about characterizing groups…
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…
We answer a question raised by Pillay, that is whether the infinite weight of the generic type of the free group is witnessed in $F_{\omega}$. We also prove that the set of primitive elements in finite rank free groups is not uniformly…
We show that the full group C$^*$-algebra of the free product of two nontrivial countable amenable discrete groups, where at least one of them has more than two elements, is primitive. We also show that in many cases, this C$^*$-algebra is…