arXiv research

Study knot invariants using automorphism groups of free nilpotent groups.

Free groups' automorphisms have bounded orbits.

Outer automorphisms of free products are represented by CTs.

Study shows top homology group isn't dualizing module for automorphism group of free groups.

Automorphisms of free groups yield invariant posets of lamination orbits.

New method computes knot invariants using free group automorphisms.

New proof shows smallest non-cyclic automorphism group quotients are linear 2-groups.

Conditions for hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic extensions of free groups using automorphisms with fixed points.

New criterion for bi-ordering free groups under automorphisms.

The automorphisms of free groups with boundaries form a family of groups A_{n,k} closely related to mapping class groups, with the standard automorphisms of free groups as A_{n,0} and (essentially) the symmetric automorphisms of free groups as A_{0,k}. We construct a contractible space L_{n,k} on which A_{n,k} acts wit…

We show that the natural map from the mapping class groups of surfaces to the automorphism groups of free groups, induces an infinite loop map on the classifying spaces of the stable groups after plus construction. The proof uses automorphisms of free groups with boundaries which play the role of mapping class groups o…

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.

The paper studies automorphisms of free groups with a North-South dynamics.

The paper constructs representations of flat virtual braids by free group automorphisms.

We prove twisted homological stability with polynomial coefficients for automorphism groups of free nilpotent groups of any given class. These groups interpolate between two extremes for which homological stability was known before, the general linear groups over the integers and the automorphism groups of free groups.…

Let $G$ be the mapping torus of a polynomially growing automorphism of a finitely generated free group. We determine which epimorphisms from $G$ to $\mathbb{Z}$ have finitely generated kernel, and we compute the rank of the kernel. We thus describe all possible ways of expressing $G$ as the mapping torus of a free grou…

By using a notion of a geometric Dehn twist in $\sharp_k(S^2 \times S^1)$, we prove that when projections of two $\mathbb{Z}$-splittings to the free factor complex are far enough from each other in the free factor complex, Dehn twist automorphisms corresponding to the $\mathbb{Z}$-splittings generate a free group of ra…

We correct the proof of Theorem 5 of the paper Homology stability for outer automorphism groups of free groups, by the first two authors.

If $G$ is a free product of finite groups, let $ΣAut_1(G)$ denote all (necessarily symmetric) automorphisms of $G$ that do not permute factors in the free product. We show that a McCullough-Miller [D. McCullough and A. Miller, {\em Symmetric Automorphisms of Free Products}, Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 122 (1996), no. 582] an…

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, name…

Maps between automorphism groups are isomorphisms for free factor complexes.

Study of Torelli subgroups of automorphism groups of free groups.

The study proves a theorem about subword complexity for free group automorphisms.

We show that every virtually torsion-free subgroup of the outer automorphism group of a conjugacy separable hyperbolic group is residually finite. As a result, we are able to prove that the group of outer automorphisms of every finitely generated Fuchsian group and of every free-by-finite group is resudually finite. We…

We present a coarse convexity result for the dynamics of free group automorphisms: Given an automorphism $φ$ of a finitely generated free group $F$, we show that for all $x\in F$ and $0\leq i\leq N$, the length of $φ^i(x)$ is bounded above by a constant multiple of the sum of the lengths of $x$ and $φ^N(x)$, with the c…

Study connects group invariants through outer automorphisms and polynomial relations.

Let $G=G_1\ast\dots\ast G_k\ast F$ be a countable group which splits as a free product, where all groups $G_i$ are freely indecomposable and not isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}$, and $F$ is a finitely generated free group. If for all $i\in\{1,\dots,k\}$, both $G_i$ and its outer automorphism group $\text{Out}(G_i)$ satisfy t…

New proof shows knot quandles of ribbon knots are distinct.

For n>2, the action of the outer automorphism group of the rank n free group F_n on the SU(2)-character variety Hom(F_n,SU(2))/SU(2)$ is ergodic with respect to the Lebesgue measure class.

Random walks on free groups reveal asymmetric expansion factors.

We prove that a "random" free group outer automorphism is an ageometric fully irreducible outer automorphism whose ideal Whitehead graph is a union of triangles. In particular, we show that its attracting (and repelling) tree is a nongeometric $\mathbb R$-tree all of whose branch points are trivalent

We compute the rational stable homology of the automorphism groups of free nilpotent groups. These groups interpolate between the general linear groups over the ring of integers and the automorphism groups of free groups, and we employ functor homology to reduce to the abelian case. As an application, we also compute t…

The study explores automorphisms and centralizers in free group outer automorphisms.

The purpose of this note is to point to a gap in an argument in our paper "Stabilization for the automorphisms of free groups with boundaries", and explain how to fill it.

Study embeddings of free group products into automorphism groups.

We give a Dehn-Nielsen type theorem for the homology cobordism group of homology cylinders by considering its action on the acyclic closure, which was defined by Levine, of a free group. Then we construct an additive invariant of those homology cylinders which act on the acyclic closure trivially. We also describe some…

We show that every virtually torsion-free subgroup of the outer automorphism group of a conjugacy separable relatively hyperbolic group is residually finite. As a direct consequence, we obtain that the outer automorphism group of a limit group is residually finite.

The pants graph of a free group is constructed and studied.

By analyzing how the Borel regulator classes vanish on various groups related to $\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathrm{Z})$, we define three series of secondary characteristic classes for subgroups of automorphism groups of free groups. The first case is the $\mathrm{IA}$-automorphism groups and we show that our classes coincide with…

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 group of relative outer automorphisms is defined as $Out(F_n;A_1,...,A_k) = Aut(F_n…

Study on Hausdorff dimension of lamination endpoints for fully irreducible automorphisms.

Study shows Morse elements are common in acylindrically hyperbolic groups.

We compute the sheaf of automorphisms of a multiplicity free Hamiltonian manifold over its momentum polytope and show that its higher cohomology groups vanish. Together with a theorem of Losev, arXiv:math/0612561, this implies a conjecture of Delzant: a compact multiplicity free Hamiltonian manifold is uniquely determi…

A palindrome in a free group F_n is a word on some fixed free basis of F_n that reads the same backwards as forwards. The palindromic automorphism group ΠA_n of the free group F_n consists of automorphisms that take each member of some fixed free basis of F_n to a palindrome; the group ΠA_n has close connections with h…

Using the Guirardel-Levitt outer space of a free product, we prove that the outer automorphism group of the outer automorphism group of the universal Coxeter group of rank $n \geq 5$ is trivial, and that it is a cyclic group of order 2 if $n=4$. In addition we prove that the outer automorphism group of the automorphism…

New PROP structure defined for automorphism group cohomology.

Study automorphism groups' action on Jacobi diagrams, leading to new decompositions.

Let $φ\in \mbox{Out}(F_n)$ be a free group outer automorphism that can be represented by an expanding, irreducible train-track map. The automorphism $φ$ determines a free-by-cyclic group $Γ=F_n \rtimes_φ\mathbb Z,$ and a homomorphism $α\in H^1(Γ; \mathbb Z)$. By work of Neumann, Bieri-Neumann-Strebel and Dowdall-Kapovi…