Colored Stallings graphs and Counterexamples to Stallings equalizer conjecture

TL;DR

This paper introduces colored Stallings graphs to construct counterexamples, disproving the Stallings equalizer conjecture for free groups of rank three or higher.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach with colored Stallings graphs that constructs counterexamples to the conjecture for ranks n ≥ 3.

Findings

Counterexamples with rank ≥ 2n-2 for all n ≥ 2

Disproves the conjecture for free groups of rank n ≥ 3

Extends known results from the case n=2 to higher ranks

Abstract

The famous Stallings equalizer conjecture has remained open for more than 40 years, which states that, for any free group \(F_n\) of rank \(n\ge 2\), any free group \(F\), and any two monomorphisms $g,h:F_n\to F,$ the equalizer $\Eq(g,h)=\{w\in F_n\mid g(w)=h(w)\}$ satisfies $\rk \Eq(g,h)\le n.$ The only known case is $n=2$, due to A. D. Logan in 2022. By introducing the notion of colored Stallings graphs, we show that for every integer \(n\ge 2\) there exist monomorphisms $g,h:F_n\longrightarrow F_2$ such that$\rk\Eq(g,h)\ge 2n-2.$ This disproves Stallings equalizer conjecture for $n\ge 3$.