Finitely generated subgroups of free groups as formal languages and their cogrowth

For finitely generated subgroups $H$ of a free group $F_m$ of finite rank $m$, we study the language $L_H$ of reduced words that represent $H$ which is a regular language. Using the (extended) core of Schreier graph of $H$, we construct the minimal deterministic finite automaton that recognizes $L_H$. Then we characterize the f.g. subgroups $H$ for which $L_H$ is irreducible and for such groups explicitly construct ergodic automaton that recognizes $L_H$. This construction gives us an efficient way to compute the cogrowth series $L_H(z)$ of $H$ and entropy of $L_H$. Several examples illustrate the method and a comparison is made with the method of calculation of $L_H(z)$ based on the use of Nielsen system of generators of $H$.

Finitely generated subgroups of free groups as formal languages and their cogrowth

For finitely generated subgroups $H$ of a free group $F_m$ of finite rank $m$, we study the language $L_H$ of reduced words that represent $H$ which is a regular language. Using the (extended) core of Schreier graph of $H$, we construct the minimal deterministic finite automaton that recognizes $L_H$. Then we characterize the f.g. subgroups $H$ for which $L_H$ is irreducible and for such groups explicitly construct ergodic automaton that recognizes $L_H$. This construction gives us an efficient way to compute the cogrowth series $L_H(z)$ of $H$ and entropy of $L_H$. Several examples illustrate the method and a comparison is made with the method of calculation of $L_H(z)$ based on the use of Nielsen system of generators of $H$.

Hierarchy for groups acting on hyperbolic ℤn-spaces

In [A.-P. Grecianu, A. Kvaschuk, A. G. Myasnikov and D. Serbin, Groups acting on hyperbolic [Formula: see text]-metric spaces, Int. J. Algebra Comput. 25(6) (2015) 977–1042], the authors initiated a systematic study of hyperbolic [Formula: see text]-metric spaces, where [Formula: see text] is an ordered abelian group, and groups acting on such spaces. The present paper concentrates on the case [Formula: see text] taken with the right lexicographic order and studies the structure of finitely generated groups acting on hyperbolic [Formula: see text]-metric spaces. Under certain constraints, the structure of such groups is described in terms of a hierarchy (see [D. T. Wise, The Structure of Groups with a Quasiconvex Hierarchy[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]AMS-[Formula: see text], Annals of Mathematics Studies (Princeton University Press, 2021)]) similar to the one established for [Formula: see text]-free groups in [O. Kharlampovich, A. G. Myasnikov, V. N. Remeslennikov and D. Serbin, Groups with free regular length functions in [Formula: see text], Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 364 (2012) 2847–2882].

Folding-like techniques for CAT(0) cube complexes

In a seminal paper, Stallings introduced folding of morphisms of graphs. One consequence of folding is the representation of finitely-generated subgroups of a finite-rank free group as immersions of finite graphs. Stallings’s methods allow one to construct this representation algorithmically, giving effective, algorithmic answers and proofs to classical questions about subgroups of free groups. Recently Dani–Levcovitz used Stallings-like methods to study subgroups of right-angled Coxeter groups, which act geometrically on CAT(0) cube complexes. In this paper we extend their techniques to fundamental groups of non-positively curved cube complexes.

Free quotients of fundamental groups of smooth quasi-projective varieties

We study the fundamental groups of the complements to curves on simply connected surfaces, admitting non-abelian free groups as their quotients. We show that given a subset of the Néron–Severi group of such a surface, there are only finitely many classes of equisingular isotopy of curves with irreducible components belonging to this subset for which the fundamental groups of the complement admit surjections onto a free group of a given sufficiently large rank. Examples of subsets of the Néron–Severi group are given with infinitely many isotopy classes of curves with irreducible components from such a subset and fundamental groups of the complements admitting surjections on a free group only of a small rank.