Random outer automorphisms of free groups: Attracting trees and their singularity structures
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- by Ilya Kapovich, Joseph Maher, Catherine Pfaff and Samuel J. Taylor PDF
- Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 375 (2022), 525-557 Request permission
Abstract:
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. This means that its attracting (and repelling) tree is a nongeometric $\mathbb {R}$-tree all of whose branch points are trivalent. In particular, it is not the dual $\mathbb {R}$-tree to a foliation on a finite simplicial 2-complex. This answers a question of Handel and Mosher.References
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Additional Information
- Ilya Kapovich
- Affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Hunter College, 695 Park Ave, New York, New York 10065
- MR Author ID: 600076
- Email: ik535@hunter.cuny.edu
- Joseph Maher
- Affiliation: CUNY College of Staten Island and CUNY Graduate Center, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York 10314
- MR Author ID: 649119
- ORCID: 0000-0003-3391-1671
- Email: joseph.maher@csi.cuny.edu
- Catherine Pfaff
- Affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen’s University, Jeffery Hall, 48 University Avenue, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
- MR Author ID: 1111829
- Email: cpfaff@math.ucsb.edu
- Samuel J. Taylor
- Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Temple University, 1805 Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
- MR Author ID: 905553
- ORCID: 0000-0002-6937-4444
- Email: samuel.taylor@temple.edu
- Received by editor(s): February 19, 2019
- Received by editor(s) in revised form: April 27, 2021, and May 17, 2021
- Published electronically: October 8, 2021
- Additional Notes: The first named author was supported by the individual NSF grants DMS-1405146 and DMS-1710868. The second named author was supported by Simons Foundation and PSC-CUNY. The fourth named author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS-1744551. All authors acknowledge support from U.S. National Science Foundation grants DMS 1107452, 1107263, 1107367 “RNMS: GEometric structures And Representation varieties” (the GEAR Network).
- © Copyright 2021 American Mathematical Society
- Journal: Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 375 (2022), 525-557
- MSC (2020): Primary 20F65; Secondary 57Mxx, 37Bxx, 37Dxx
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/tran/8472
- MathSciNet review: 4358675
Dedicated: Catherine Pfaff would like to dedicate this paper to her father Dr. Roland Pfaff, zikhrono livrakha