Finite Quotients of the Automorphism Group of a Free Group

Abstract

Let G and F be groups. A G-defining subgroup of F is a normal subgroup N of F such that F/N is isomorphic to G. The automorphism group Aut (F) acts on the set of G-defining subgroups of F. If G is finite and F is finitely generated, one obtains a finite permutation representation of Out (F), the outer automorphism group of F. We study these representations in the case that F is a free group.