Quotient and blow-up of automorphisms of graphs of groups

In this paper, we study the quotient and “blow-up” of graph-of-groups [Formula: see text] and of their automorphisms [Formula: see text]. We show that the existence of such a blow-up of any [Formula: see text], relative to a given family of “local” graph-of-groups isomorphisms [Formula: see text] depends crucially on the [Formula: see text]-conjugacy class of the correction term [Formula: see text] for any edge [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text]-conjugacy is a new but natural concept introduced here. As an application, we obtain a criterion as to whether a partial Dehn twist can be blown up relative to local Dehn twists, to give an actual Dehn twist. The results of this paper are also used crucially in the follow-up papers [Lustig and Ye, Normal form and parabolic dynamics for quadratically growing automorphisms of free groups, arXiv:1705.04110v2; Ye, Partial Dehn twists of free groups relative to local Dehn twists — A dichotomy, arXiv:1605.04479 ; When is a polynomially growing automorphism of [Formula: see text] geometric, arXiv:1605.07390 ].

Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist

Geometric group theory is the study of the interplay between groups and the spaces they act on, and has its roots in the works of Henri Poincaré, Felix Klein, J.H.C. Whitehead, and Max Dehn. This book brings together leading experts who provide one-on-one instruction on key topics in this exciting and relatively new field of mathematics. It's like having office hours with your most trusted math professors. An essential primer for undergraduates making the leap to graduate work, the book begins with free groups—actions of free groups on trees, algorithmic questions about free groups, the ping-pong lemma, and automorphisms of free groups. It goes on to cover several large-scale geometric invariants of groups, including quasi-isometry groups, Dehn functions, Gromov hyperbolicity, and asymptotic dimension. It also delves into important examples of groups, such as Coxeter groups, Thompson's groups, right-angled Artin groups, lamplighter groups, mapping class groups, and braid groups. The tone is conversational throughout, and the instruction is driven by examples. It features numerous exercises and in-depth projects designed to engage readers and provide jumping-off points for research projects.

Automorphisms of Free Groups

This chapter discusses the automorphisms of free groups. Every group is the collection of symmetries of some object, namely, its Cayley graph. A symmetry of a group is called an automorphism; it is merely an isomorphism of the group to itself. The collection of all of the automorphisms is also a group too, known as the automorphism group and denoted by Aut (G). The chapter considers basic examples of groups to illustrate what an automorphism is, with a focus on the automorphisms of the symmetric group on three elements and of the free abelian group. It also examines the dynamics of an automorphism of a free group and concludes with a description of train tracks, a topological model for the free group, and the Perron–Frobenius theorem. Exercises and research projects are included.