An analogue of the strengthened Hanna Neumann conjecture for virtually free groups and virtually free products

Abstract

The Friedman--Mineyev theorem, earlier known as the (strengthened) Hanna Neumann conjecture, gives a sharp estimate for the rank of the intersection of two subgroups in a free group. We obtain an analogue of this inequality for any two subgroups in a virtually free group (or, more generally, in a group containing a free product of left-orderable groups as a finite-index subgroup).