Measure Preserving Words are Primitive

TL;DR

This paper proves that measure preserving words in free groups are exactly the primitive words, establishing a new characterization based on distributions on finite groups and resolving related conjectures.

Contribution

It proves the conjecture that primitive words are measure preserving on all finite groups, linking measure preservation to primitive elements and free factors in free groups.

Findings

Primitive words are measure preserving on all finite groups.

A subgroup is measure preserving if and only if it is a free factor.

Primitive elements form a closed set in the profinite topology.

Abstract

We establish new characterizations of primitive elements and free factors in free groups, which are based on the distributions they induce on finite groups. For every finite group $G$, a word $w$ in the free group on $k$ generators induces a word map from $G^k$ to $G$. We say that $w$ is measure preserving with respect to $G$ if given uniform distribution on $G^k$, the image of this word map distributes uniformly on $G$. It is easy to see that primitive words (words which belong to some basis of the free group) are measure preserving w.r.t. all finite groups, and several authors have conjectured that the two properties are, in fact, equivalent. Here we prove this conjecture. The main ingredients of the proof include random coverings of Stallings graphs, algebraic extensions of free groups, and M\"obius inversions. Our methods yield the stronger result that a subgroup of $F_k$ is measure preserving if and only if it is a free factor. As an interesting corollary of this result we resolve a question on the profinite topology of free groups and show that the primitive elements of $F_k$ form a closed set in this topology.