We analyze the structure of the \emph{frequency space} $Q(F)$ of a nonabelian free group $F=F(a_1,...,a_k)$ consisting of all shift-invariant Borel probability measures on $\partial F$ and construct a natural action of $Out(F)$ on $Q(F)$. In particular we prove that for any outer automorphism $ϕ$ of $F$ the \emph{conjugacy distortion spectrum} of $ϕ$, consisting of all numbers $||ϕ(w)||/||w||$, where $w$ is a nontrivial conjugacy class, is the intersection of $\mathbb Q$ and a closed subinterval of $\mathbb R$ with rational endpoints. We also provide an algorithm for detecting strict hyperbolicity of an automorphism of $F$.
Elementarily free groups are the finitely generated groups with the same elementary theory as free groups. We prove that elementarily free groups are subgroup separable, answering a question of Zlil Sela.
The group of 2-by-2 matrices with integer entries and determinant $\pm > 1$ can be identified either with the group of outer automorphisms of a rank two free group or with the group of isotopy classes of homeomorphisms of a 2-dimensional torus. Thus this group is the beginning of three natural sequences of groups, namely the general linear groups ${\rm{GL}}(n,\Z)$, the groups of outer automorphisms of free groups of rank $n\geq 2$, and the mapping class groups of closed orientable surfaces of genus $g\geq 1$. Much of the work on mapping class groups and automorphisms of free groups is motivate…
We discuss the possibility of lifting finite subgroups, and in particular finite cyclic subgroups, with respect to the canonical projections between automorphism and outer automorphism groups of free groups, surface groups and their abelianizations.
We prove that Kleinian groups whose limit sets are Cantor sets of Hausdorff dimension $<1$ are free. On the other hand we construct for any $ε>0$ examples of non-free purely hyperbolic Kleinian groups whose limit set is a Cantor set of Hausdorff dimension $<1+ε$.
It is conjectured that the central quotient of every irreducible Artin group is either virtually cyclic or acylindrically hyperbolic. We prove this conjecture for Artin groups associated to triangle-free graphs and Artin groups of large type associated to cones over square-free bipartite graphs. In fact, we treat Artin groups that are known to be CAT(0) groups by a result of Brady and McCammond.
The aim of the present paper is to construct series of invariants of free knots (flat virtual knots, virtual knots) valued in free groups (and also free products of cyclic groups). (Some minor mistakes are corrected)
Let $F$ be either a free nilpotent group of a given class and of finite rank or a free solvable group of a certain derived length and of finite rank. We show precisely which ones have the $R_{\infty}$ property. Finally, we also show that the free group of infinite rank does not have the $R_{\infty}$ property.
We give a topological framework for the study of Sela's limit groups: limit groups are limits of free groups in a compact space of marked groups. Many results get a natural interpretation in this setting. The class of limit groups is known to coincide with the class of finitely generated fully residually free groups. The topological approach gives some new insight on the relation between fully residually free groups, the universal theory of free groups, ultraproducts and non-standard free groups.
We prove that an outer automorphism of the free group is exponentially growing if and only if it induces an outer automorphism of infinite order of free Burnside groups with sufficiently large odd exponent.
This note aims to introduce a left adjoint functor to the functor which assigns a heap to a group. The adjunction is monadic. It is explained how one can decompose a free group functor through the previously introduced adjoint and employ it to describe a slightly different construction of free groups.
In this note, we show that an uncountable locally free group, and therefore every locally free group, has a free subgroup whose cardinality is the same as that of $G$. This result directly improve the main result in [T. Nishinaka,"Group rings of countable non-abelian locally free groups are primitive", Int. J. algebra and computation, 21(3)(2011), 409-431] and establish the primitivity of group rings of locally free groups.
Sacerdote [Sa] has shown that the non-Abelian free groups satisfy precisely the same universal-existential sentences Th(F$_2$)$\cap \forall \exists $ in a first-order language L$_o$ appropriate for group theory. It is shown that in every model of Th(F$_2$)$\cap \forall \exists $ the maximal Abelian subgroups are elementarily equivalent to locally cyclic groups (necessarily nontrivial and torsion free). Two classes of groups are interpolated between the non-Abelian locally free groups and Remeslennikov's $\exists $-free groups. These classes are the \textbf{almost locally free groups} and the \…
We prove an estimate for the rank of the intersection of free subgroups in virtually free groups, which is analogous to the Hanna Neumann inequality for subgroups in a free group and to the S.V. Ivanov estimate for subgroups in free products of groups. We also prove a more general estimate for the rank of the intersection of free subgroups in the fundamental group of a finite graph of groups with finite edge groups.
A conjecture of Dicks and the author on rank of the intersection of factor-free subgroups in free products of groups is proved for the case of left ordered groups.
We construct easy embeddings of relatively free groups (say the free Burnside group, the free solvable group) into finitely presented groups. We introduce a concept of verbal isoperimetric function of a group variety. We prove that if the verbal Dehn function of a relatively free group is bounded by a polynomial then the group can be embedded quasi-isometrically into a finitely presented group with polynomial isoperimetric function. We also construct an easy embedding of any Baumslag-Solitar solvable group into a finitely presented group with polynomial Dehn function.
A group $G$ is said to be a {\it CSA}-group if all maximal abelian subgroups of $G$ are malnormal. The class of CSA groups is of interest because it contains torsion-free hyperbolic groups, groups acting freely on $Λ$-trees and groups with the same existential theory as free groups. CSA groups are also very closely related to the study of residually free groups and tensor completions. In this paper we investigate which free constructions (amalgamated products and HNN extensions) over CSA groups are again CSA. The results are applied, in particular, to show that a torsion-free one-relator group…
We show that free-by-free groups satisfying a homological criterion, which we call excessive homology, are incoherent. This class is large in nature, including many examples of hyperbolic and non-hyperbolic free-by-free groups. We apply this criterion to finite index subgroups of $F_2\rtimes F_n$ to show incoherence of all such groups, and to other similar classes of groups. Furthermore, we show that a large class of groups, including free-by-free, surface-by-surface, and finitely generated-by-RAAG, algebraically fiber if they have excessive homology.
We give two examples of a finitely generated subgroup of a free group and a subset, closed in the profinite topology of a free group, such that their product is not closed in the profinite topology of a free group.
We give an algorithm for solving equations and inequations with rational constraints in virtually free groups. Our algorithm is based on Rips classification of measured band complexes. Using canonical representatives, we deduce an algorithm for solving equations and inequations in hyperbolic groups (maybe with torsion). Additionnally, we can deal with quasi-isometrically embeddable rational constraints.
There are limit groups having non-conjugate elements whose images are conjugate in every free quotient. Towers over free groups are freely conjugacy separable.
We will show that all inverse limits of finite rank free groups index by the natural numbers are isomorphic either to a finite rank free group or to a fixed universal group. In other words, any inverse system of finite rank free groups which is not equivalent to an eventually constant system has the universal group as its limit. This universal inverse limit is naturally isomorphic to the first shape group of the Hawaiian earring. We also give an example of a homomorphic image of a Hawaiian earring group which lies in the inverse limit of free groups but is neither a free group nor a Hawaiian e…
We show that the class of amalgamated free products of two free groups over a cyclic subgroup admits amenable, faithful and transitive actions on infinite countable sets. This work generalizes the results on such actions for doubles of free group on 2 generators.
We classify the finite groups $G$ such that the group of units of the integral group ring ${\mathbb Z} G$ has a subgroup of finite index which is a direct product of free-by-free groups.
We prove that groups for which every countable subgroup is free ($\aleph_1$-free groups) are n-slender, cm-slender, and lcH-slender. In particular every homomorphism from a completely metrizable group to an $\aleph_1$-free group has an open kernel. We also show that $\aleph_1$-free abelian groups are lcH-slender, which is especially interesting in light of the fact that some $\aleph_1$-free abelian groups are neither n- nor cm-slender. The strongly $\aleph_1$-free abelian groups are shown to be n-, cm-, and lcH-slender. We also give a characterization of cm- and lcH-slender abelian groups.
We define two complexes on which the group Aut$(F_n)$ acts freely. The homotopy groups of these are studied. They map to the K-groups of Z and are themselves a sort of pre-K-theory.
Measure free factors are a generalization of the notion of free factors of a group, in a measure theoretic context. We find new families of cyclic measure free factors of free groups and some virtually free groups, following a question by D. Gaboriau.
Let G be a free group in a variety of groups, but G is not absolutely free. We prove that the group of automorphisms Aut(G) is linear iff G is a virtually nilpotent group.
We compute a twisted first cohomology group of the automorphism group of a free group with coefficients in the abelianization $V$ of the IA-automorphism group of a free group. In particular, we show that it is generated by two crossed homomorphisms constructed with the Magnus representation and the Magnus expansion due to Morita and Kawazumi respectively. As a corollary, we see that the first Johnson homomorphism does not extend to the automorphism group of a free group as a crossed homomorphism for the rank of the free group is greater than 4.
We introduce the condition of a profinite group being semi-free, which is more general than being free and more restrictive than being quasi-free. In particular, every projective semi-free profinite group is free. We prove that the usual permanence properties of free groups carry over to semi-free groups. Using this, we conclude that if k is a separably closed field, then many field extensions of k((x,y)) have free absolute Galois groups.
In this paper, we mainly discuss some generalized metric properties and the character of the free paratopological groups, and extend several results valid for free topological groups to free paratopological groups.
We show that the theory of the free group -- and more generally the theory of any torsion-free hyperbolic group -- is $n$-ample for any $n\geq 1$. We give also an explicit description of the imaginary algebraic closure in free groups.
In this paper, we show that the abelianization of the kernel of the Magnus representation of the automorphism group of a free group is not finitely generated.
Groups with various types of operators, in particular the recently introduced Rota-Baxter groups, have generated renowned interest with close connections to numerical integrals, Yang-Baxter equation, integrable systems and post-Hopf algebras. This paper gives the general notion of operated groups and provides explicit constructions of free operated groups, free differential groups and free Rota-Baxter groups.
