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) no. 2, pp. 395-414.

We revisit the problem of deciding whether a finitely generated subgroup H is a free factor of a given free group F. Known algorithms solve this problem in time polynomial in the sum of the lengths of the generators of H and exponential in the rank of F. We show that the latter dependency can be made exponential in the rank difference rank(F) - rank(H), which often makes a significant change.

DOI : 10.1051/ita:2007040
Classification : 20E05, 05C25
Mots clés : combinatorial group theory, free groups, free factors, inverse automata, algorithms
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     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},
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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) no. 2, pp. 395-414. doi : 10.1051/ita:2007040. http://www.numdam.org/articles/10.1051/ita:2007040/

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