Surface Words are Determined by Word Measures on Groups

Every word $w$ in a free group naturally induces a probability measure on every compact group $G$. For example, if $w=\left[x,y\right]$ is the commutator word, a random element sampled by the $w$-measure is given by the commutator $\left[g,h\right]$ of two independent, Haar-random elements of $G$. Back in 1896, Frobenius showed that if $G$ is a finite group and $\psi$ an irreducible character, then the expected value of $\psi\left(\left[g,h\right]\right)$ is $\frac{1}{\psi\left(e\right)}$. This is true for any compact group, and completely determines the $\left[x,y\right]$-measure on these groups. An analogous result holds with the commutator word replaced by any surface word. We prove a converse to this theorem: if $w$ induces the same measure as $\left[x,y\right]$ on every compact group, then, up to an automorphism of the free group, $w$ is equal to $\left[x,y\right]$. The same holds when $\left[x,y\right]$ is replaced by any surface word. The proof relies on the analysis of word measures on unitary groups and on orthogonal groups, which appears in separate papers, and on new analysis of word measures on generalized symmetric groups that we develop here.Comment: 16 pages, fixed the proof of Theorem 3.6, updated reference

Primitive Words, Free Factors and Measure Preservation

Let F_k be the free group on k generators. A word w \in F_k is called primitive if it belongs to some basis of F_k. We investigate two criteria for primitivity, and consider more generally, subgroups of F_k which are free factors. The first criterion is graph-theoretic and uses Stallings core graphs: given subgroups of finite rank H \le J \le F_k we present a simple procedure to determine whether H is a free factor of J. This yields, in particular, a procedure to determine whether a given element in F_k is primitive. Again let w \in F_k and consider the word map w:G x G x ... x G \to G (from the direct product of k copies of G to G), where G is an arbitrary finite group. We call w measure preserving if given uniform measure on G x G x ... x G, w induces uniform measure on G (for every finite G). This is the second criterion we investigate: it is not hard to see that primitivity implies measure preservation and it was conjectured that the two properties are equivalent. Our combinatorial approach to primitivity allows us to make progress on this problem and in particular prove the conjecture for k=2. It was asked whether the primitive elements of F_k form a closed set in the profinite topology of free groups. Our results provide a positive answer for F_2.Comment: This is a unified version of two manuscripts: "On Primitive words I: A New Algorithm", and "On Primitive Words II: Measure Preservation". 42 pages, 14 figures. Some parts of the paper reorganized towards publication in the Israel J. of Mat

Word Measures on Symmetric Groups

Fix a word $w$ in a free group $F$ on $r$ generators. A $w$-random permutation in the symmetric group $S_N$ is obtained by sampling $r$ independent uniformly random permutations $\sigma_{1},\ldots,\sigma_{r}\in S_{N}$ and evaluating $w\left(\sigma_{1},\ldots,\sigma_{r}\right)$. In [arXiv:1104.3991, arXiv:1202.3269] it was shown that the average number of fixed points in a $w$-random permutation is $1+\theta\left(N^{1-\pi\left(w\right)}\right)$, where $\pi\left(w\right)$ is the smallest rank of a subgroup $H\le F$ containing $w$ as a non-primitive element. We show that $\pi\left(w\right)$ plays a role in estimates of all "natural" families of characters of symmetric groups: those corresponding to "stable" representations. In particular, we show that for all $t\ge2$, the average number of $t$-cycles is $\frac{1}{t}+O\left(N^{-\pi\left(w\right)}\right)$. As an application, we prove that for every $s$, every $\varepsilon>0$ and every large enough $r$, Schreier graphs with $r$ random generators depicting the action of $S_{N}$ on $s$-tuples, have second eigenvalue at most $2\sqrt{2r-1}+\varepsilon$ asymptotically almost surely. An important ingredient in this work is a systematic study of not-necessarily connected Stallings core graphs.Comment: 50 pages, 2 figures. Extended abstract accepted to FPSAC 2020. Added new Appendix A. Improved introductio