Relative Free Splitting Complexes III: Stable Translation Lengths and Filling Paths

Abstract

This is the last of a three part work about relative free splitting complexes $\mathcal{FS}(Γ,\mathscr{A})$ and their actions by relative outer automorphism groups $\text{Out}(Γ;\mathscr{A})$. We obtain quantitative relations between the stable translation length $τ_ϕ$ and the relative train track dynamics of~$ϕ\in \Out(Γ;\A)$. First, if $ϕ$ has an orbit with diameter bounded below by a certain constant $Ω(Γ;\mathscr{A}) \ge 1$ then $ϕ$ has a filling attracting lamination. Also, there is a positive lower bound $τ_ϕ\ge A(Γ;\mathscr{A}) > 0$ amongst all $ϕ$ which have a filling attracting lamination. Both proofs rely on a study of \emph{filling paths} in a free splitting. These results are all new even for $\text{Out}(F_n)$.