On Almost Primitive Elements of Free Groups With an Application to Fuchsian Groups

Abstract

AbstractAn element of a free group F is called almost primitive in F, if it is primitive in every proper subgroup containing it, though not in F itself. Several examples of almost primitive elements (APEs) are exhibited. The main results concern the behaviour of proper powers wℓ of certain APEs w in a free group F (and, more generally, in free products of cycles) with respect to any subgroup H containing such a power “minimally“: these assert, in essence, that either such powers of w behave in H as do powers of primitives of F, or, if not, then they “almost” do so and furthermore H must then have finite index in F precisely determined by the smallest positive powers of conjugates of w lying in H. Finally, these results are applied to show that the groups of a certain class (potentially larger than that of finitely generated Fuchsian groups) have the property that all their subgroups of infinité index are free products of cyclic groups.