On several problems about automorphisms of the free group of rank two

Let $F_n$ be a free group of rank $n$. In this paper we discuss three algorithmic problems related to automorphisms of $F_2$. A word $u$ of $F_n$ is called positive if $u$ does not have negative exponents. A word $u$ in $F_n$ is called potentially positive if $\phi(u)$ is positive for some automorphism $\phi$ of $F_n$. We prove that there is an algorithm to decide whether or not a given word in $F_2$ is potentially positive, which gives an affirmative solution to problem F34a in [1] for the case of $F_2$. Two elements $u$ and $v$ in $F_n$ are said to be boundedly translation equivalent if the ratio of the cyclic lengths of $\phi(u)$ and $\phi(v)$ is bounded away from 0 and from $\infty$ for every automorphism $\phi$ of $F_n$. We provide an algorithm to determine whether or not two given elements of $F_2$ are boundedly translation equivalent, thus answering question F38c in the online version of [1] for the case of $F_2$. We further prove that there exists an algorithm to decide whether or not a given finitely generated subgroup of $F_2$ is the fixed point group of some automorphism of $F_2$, which settles problem F1b in [1] in the affirmative for the case of $F_2$.Comment: 30 page

On certain C-test words for free groups

Let F_m be a free group of a finite rank m > 1 and X_i, Y_j be elements in F_m. A non-empty word w(x_1,..., x_n) is called a C-test word in n letters for F_m if, whenever w(X_1,..., X_n)=w(Y_1,..., Y_n) not equal to 1, the two n-tuples (X_1,..., X_n) and (Y_1,..., Y_n) are conjugate in F_m. In this paper we construct, for each n > 1, a C-test word v_n(x_1,..., x_n) with the additional property that v_n(X_1,..., X_n)=1 if and only if the subgroup of F_m generated by X_1,..., X_n is cyclic. Making use of such words v_m(x_1,..., x_m) and v_{m+1}(x_1,..., x_{m+1}), we provide a positive solution to the following problem raised by Shpilrain: There exist two elements u_1, u_2 in F_m such that every endomorphism of F_m with non-cyclic image is completely determined by its values on u_1, u_2.Comment: 36 page

Counting words of minimum length in an automorphic orbit

Let u be a cyclic word in a free group F_n of finite rank n that has the minimum length over all cyclic words in its automorphic orbit, and let N(u) be the cardinality of the set {v: |v|=|u| and v= \phi(u) for some \phi \in \text {Aut}F_n}. In this paper, we prove that N(u) is bounded by a polynomial function with respect to |u| under the hypothesis that if two letters x, y occur in u, then the total number of x and x^{-1} occurring in u is not equal to the total number of y and y^{-1} occurring in u. A complete proof without the hypothesis would yield the polynomial time complexity of Whitehead's algorithm for F_n.Comment: 35 pages, revised versio