Related papers: Free-group automorphisms, train tracks and the bea…

We prove that an automorphism $\phi:F\to F$ of a finitely generated free group $F$ is hyperbolic in the sense of Gromov if it has no nontrivial periodic conjugacy classes.

This article focuses on free factors H <= F_m of the free group F_m with finite rank m > 2, and specifically addresses the implications of Ascari's refinement of the Whitehead automorphism phi for H as introduced in \cite{ascari2021fine}.…

We study the free product of rooted graphs and its various decompositions using quantum probabilistic methods. We show that the free product of rooted graphs is canonically associated with free independence, which completes the proof of the…

We prove that ascending HNN extensions of free groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have no Baumslag-Solitar subgroups. This extends the theorem of Brinkmann that free-by-cyclic groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have…

Let $G = H_1 * ... * H_k * F_r$ be a torsion-free group and $\phi$ an automorphism of $G$ that preserves this free factor system. We show that when $\phi$ is fully irreducible and atoroidal relative to this free factor system, the mapping…

Let $F_n$ be the free group on $n\ge 2$ elements and $\A(F_n)$ its group of automorphisms. In this paper we present a rich collection of linear representations of $\A(F_n)$ arising through the action of finite index subgroups of it on…

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,…

A fully irreducible outer automorphism phi of the free group F_n of rank n has an expansion factor which often differs from the expansion factor of the inverse of phi. Nevertheless, we prove that the ratio between the logarithms of the…

Given a countable group $G$ splitting as a free product $G=G_1\ast\dots\ast G_k\ast F_N$, we establish classification results for subgroups of the group $Out(G,\mathcal{F})$ of all outer automorphisms of $G$ that preserve the conjugacy…

In 1981, Lubiw proved that the fixed point free automorphism problem (FPFAut) is NP-complete: given a graph G, determine whether there exists an automorphism that maps no vertex of G to itself. We revisit this problem and prove that FPFAut…

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…

We prove that abelian subgroups of the outer automorphism group of a free group are quasi-isometrically embedded. Our proof uses recent developments in the theory of train track maps by Feighn-Handel. As an application, we prove the rank…

Given a finite rank free group $\mathbb{F}$ of $\mathsf{rank}(\mathbb{F})\geq 3$, we show that the mapping torus of $\phi$ is (strongly) relatively hyperbolic if $\phi$ is exponentially growing. We combine our result with the work of…

We study the minimally displaced set of irreducible automorphisms of a free group. Our main result is the co-compactness of the minimally displaced set of an irreducible automorphism with exponential growth $\phi$, under the action of the…

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…

The Whitehead Model of free groups can be used to measure the complexity, or degree, of automorphisms of free groups. The bound for the degree of the $f \circ g$ for deg$(f) =$ deg($g) = 0$ had previously been discovered. We extend this…

Let $F$ be a free group of positive, finite rank and let $\Phi\in Aut(F)$ be a polynomial-growth automorphism. Then $F\rtimes_\Phi\mathbb Z$ is strongly thick of order $\eta$, where $\eta$ is the rate of polynomial growth of $\phi$. This…

The mapping torus of an endomorphism \Phi of a group G is the HNN-extension G*_G with bonding maps the identity and \Phi. We show that a mapping torus of an injective free group endomorphism has the property that its finitely generated…

We present a normal form for outer automorphisms $\phi$ of a non-abelian free group $F_N$ which grow quadratically (measured through the maximal growth of conjugacy classes in $F_N$ under iteration of $\phi$). In analogy to the known normal…

We study the dilatation of outer automorphisms of right-angled Artin groups. Given a right-angled Artin group defined on a simplicial graph: $A(\Gamma) = \langle V | E \rangle$ and an automorphism $\phi \in Out(A(\Gamma))$ there is a…