One-endedness of outer automorphism groups of free products of finite and cyclic groups

Abstract

The main result of this paper is that the outer automorphism group of a free product of finite groups and cyclic groups is semistable at infinity (provided it is one ended) or semistable at each end. In a previous paper, we showed that the group of outer automorphisms of the free product of two nontrivial finite groups with an infinite cyclic group has infinitely many ends, despite being of virtual cohomological dimension two. We also prove that aside from this exception, having virtual cohomological dimension at least two implies the outer automorphism group of a free product of finite and cyclic groups is one ended. As a corollary, the outer automorphism groups of the free product of four finite groups or the free product of a single finite group with a free group of rank two are virtual duality groups of dimension two, in contrast with the above example. Our proof is inspired by methods of Vogtmann, applied to a complex first studied in another guise by Krsti\'c and Vogtmann.