Relative twisting in Outer space

Abstract

Subsurface projection has become indispensable in studying the geometry of the mapping class group and the curve complex of a surface. When the subsurface is an annulus, this projection is sometimes called relative twisting. We give two alternate versions of relative twisting for the outer automorphism group of a free group. We use this to describe sufficient conditions for when a folding path enters the thin part of Culler-Vogtmann's Outer space. As an application of our condition, we produce a sequence of fully irreducible outer automorphisms whose axes in Outer space travel through graphs with arbitrarily short cycles; we also describe the asymptotic behavior of their translation lengths.Comment: updated version, incorporates referee comment