Clusters, currents and Whitehead's algorithm
Abstract
Using geodesic currents, we provide a theoretical justification for some of the experimental results regarding the behavior of Whitehead's algorithm on non-minimal inputs, that were obtained by Haralick, Miasnikov and Myasnikov via pattern recognition methods. In particular we prove that the images of "random" elements of a free group F under the automorphisms of F form "clusters" that share similar normalized Whitehead graphs and similar behavior with respect to Whitehead's algorithm.
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