We revisit the problem of deciding whether a finitely generated subgroup is a free factor of a given free group . Known algorithms solve this problem in time polynomial in the sum of the lengths of the generators of and exponential in the rank of . We show that the latter dependency can be made exponential in the rank difference rank - rank, which often makes a significant change.
@article{ITA_2008__42_2_395_0, author = {Silva, Pedro V. and Weil, Pascal}, title = {On an algorithm to decide whether a free group is a free factor of another}, journal = {RAIRO - Theoretical Informatics and Applications - Informatique Th\'eorique et Applications}, volume = {42}, year = {2008}, pages = {395-414}, doi = {10.1051/ita:2007040}, mrnumber = {2401269}, zbl = {1146.20021}, language = {en}, url = {http://dml.mathdoc.fr/item/ITA_2008__42_2_395_0} }
Silva, Pedro V.; Weil, Pascal. On an algorithm to decide whether a free group is a free factor of another. RAIRO - Theoretical Informatics and Applications - Informatique Théorique et Applications, Tome 42 (2008) pp. 395-414. doi : 10.1051/ita:2007040. http://gdmltest.u-ga.fr/item/ITA_2008__42_2_395_0/
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