Commensurations of Out(F n )

Abstract

Let Out(Fn) denote the outer automorphism group of the free group Fn with n>3. We prove that for any finite index subgroup Γ<Out(Fn), the group Aut(Γ) is isomorphic to the normalizer of Γ in Out(Fn). We prove that Γ is co-Hopfian: every injective homomorphism Γ→Γ is surjective. Finally, we prove that the abstract commensurator Comm(Out(Fn)) is isomorphic to Out(Fn).