The Geometry of the Conjugacy Problem in Wreath Products and Free Solvable Groups

We describe an effective version of the conjugacy problem and study it for wreath products and free solvable groups. The problem involves estimating the length of short conjugators between two elements of the group, a notion which leads to the definition of the conjugacy length function. We show that for free solvable groups the conjugacy length function is at most cubic. For wreath products the behaviour depends on the conjugacy length function of the two groups involved, as well as subgroup distortion within the quotient group.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures. This was formed from the splitting of arXiv:1202.5343, titled "On the Magnus Embedding and the Conjugacy Length Function of Wreath Products and Free Solvable Groups," into two papers. The contents of this paper remain largely unchange