Ideal Whitehead Graphs in Out(F_r) III: Achieved Graphs in Rank 3

Catherine Pfaff

Published 2013-01-29, updated 2014-09-07Version 2

By proving precisely which singularity index lists arise from the pair of invariant foliations for a pseudo-Anosov surface homeomorphism, Masur and Smillie determined a Teichm\"uller flow invariant stratification of the space of quadratic differentials. In this final paper of a three-paper series, we give a first step to an $Out(F_r)$ analog of the Masur-Smillie theorem. Since the ideal Whitehead graphs defined by Handel and Mosher give a strictly finer invariant in the analogous $Out(F_r)$ setting, we determine which of the twenty-one connected, simplicial, five-vertex graphs are ideal Whitehead graphs of fully irreducible outer automorphisms in $Out(F_3)$.