The intersection of subgroups in free groups and linear programming

Abstract

We study the intersection of finitely generated subgroups of free groups by utilizing the method of linear programming. We prove that if $H_1$ is a finitely generated subgroup of a free group $F$, then the WN-coefficient $\sigma(H_1)$ of $H_1$ is rational and can be computed in deterministic exponential time in the size of $H_1$. This coefficient $\sigma(H_1)$ is the minimal nonnegative real number such that, for every finitely generated subgroup $H_2$ of $F$, it is true that $\bar {\rm r}(H_1, H_2) \le \sigma(H_1) \bar {\rm r}(H_1) \bar {\rm r}(H_2)$, where $\bar{ {\rm r}} (H) := \max ( {\rm r} (H)-1,0)$ is the reduced rank of $H$, ${\rm r} (H)$ is the rank of $H$, and $\bar {\rm r}(H_1, H_2)$ is the reduced rank of the generalized intersection of $H_1$ and $H_2$. We also show the existence of a subgroup $H_2^* = H_2^*(H_1)$ of $F$ such that $\bar {\rm r}(H_1, H_2^*) = \sigma(H_1) \bar {\rm r}(H_1) \bar {\rm r}(H_2^*)$, the Stallings graph $\Gamma(H_2^*)$ of $H_2^*$ has at most doubly exponential size in the size of $H_1$ and $\Gamma(H_2^*)$ can be constructed in exponential time in the size of $H_1$.