Related papers: Translation equivalent elements in free groups

Let F_2 be a free group of rank 2. We prove that there is an algorithm that decides whether or not, for given two elements u, v of F_2, u and v are translation equivalent in F_2, that is, whether or not u and v have the property that the…

Motivated by the work of Leininger on hyperbolic equivalence of homotopy classes of closed curves on surfaces, we investigate a similar phenomenon for free groups. Namely, we study the situation when two elements $g,h$ in a free group $F$…

Let $F_n$ be a free group of rank $n$. In this paper we discuss three algorithmic problems related to automorphisms of $F_2$. A word $u$ of $F_n$ is called positive if $u$ does not have negative exponents. A word $u$ in $F_n$ is called…

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…

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…

Given a finite abelian group $G$ and elements $x, y \in G$, we prove that there exists $\phi \in \text{Aut}(G)$ such that $\phi(x) = y$ if and only if $G/\langle x \rangle \cong G/\langle y \rangle$. This result leads to our development of…

For any choice of a basis $\cal A$ the free group $F_N$ of finite rank $N \geq 2$ can be canonically identified with the set $F(\cal A)$ of reduced words in $\cal A\cup \cal A^{-1}$. However, such a word $w \in F(\cal A)$ admits a second…

Let $G=F\ast_\varphi t$ be an HNN extension of a free group $F$ with two equal associated normal subgroups $H_1 = H_2$ of finite index. We prove that the word problem in $G$ is decidable in polynomial time. This result extends to the case…

For finitely generated groups H and G, equipped with word metrics, a translation-like action of H on G is a free action such that each element of H acts by a map which has finite distance from the identity map in the uniform metric. For…

We generalize the combinatorial approaches of Rapaport and Higgins--Lyndon to the Whitehead algorithm. We show that for every automorphism $\varphi$ of a free group $F$ and every word $u\in F$ there exists a finite multiset of words…

We show that the conjugacy problem is solvable in [finitely generated free]-by-cyclic groups, by using a result of O. Maslakova that one can algorithmically find generating sets for the fixed subgroups of free group automorphisms, and one…

Bestvina, Feighn and Handel proved that every subgroup of the outer automorphism group, $\textrm{Out}(F_n)$, of the free group of rank $n$ is either virtually finitely generated abelian or contains a nonabelian free group. In this note we…

We show that the following problems are decidable in a rank 2 free group F_2: does a given finitely generated subgroup H contain primitive elements? and does H meet the orbit of a given word u under the action of G, the group of…

Let $\phi$ be an automorphism of a free group $F_n$ of rank $n$, and let $M_{\phi}=F_n \rtimes_{\phi} \mathbb{Z}$ be the corresponding mapping torus of $\phi$. We study the group $Out(M_{\phi})$ under certain technical conditions on $\phi$.…

Given a free group $F_k$ of rank $k\ge 2$ with a fixed set of free generators we associate to any homomorphism $\phi$ from $F_k$ to a group $G$ with a left-invariant semi-norm a generic stretching factor, $\lambda(\phi)$, which is a…

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…

We investigate translation length functions for two-generated groups acting by isometries on $\Lambda$-trees, where $\Lambda$ is a totally ordered abelian group. In this context, we provide an explicit formula for the translation length of…

In [FGRS1,FGRS2] the relationship between the universal and elementary theory of a group ring $R[G]$ and the corresponding universal and elementary theory of the associated group $G$ and ring $R$ was examined. Here we assume that $R$ is a…

Let F_n be the free group of rank n, with generating set S=\{x_1,...,x_n\}. An automorphism \phi of F_n is called symmetric if for each 1\leq i\leq n, \phi(x_i) is conjugate to x_j or x_j^{-1} for some 1\leq j\leq n. Let \Sigma Aut(F_n) be…

Let F_2 denote the free group of rank 2. Our main technical result of independent interest is: for any element u of F_2, there is g in F_2 such that no cyclically reduced image of u under an automorphism of F_2 contains g as a subword. We…