We study the computational complexity of the Word Problem (WP) in free solvable groups $S_{r,d}$, where $r \geq 2$ is the rank and $d \geq 2$ is the solvability class of the group. It is known that the Magnus embedding of $S_{r,d}$ into matrices provides a polynomial time decision algorithm for WP in a fixed group $S_{r,d}$. Unfortunately, the degree of the polynomial grows together with $d$, so the uniform algorithm is not polynomial in $d$. In this paper we show that WP has time complexity $O(r n \log_2 n)$ in $S_{r,2}$, and $O(n^3 r d)$ in $S_{r,d}$ for $d \geq 3$. However, it turns out, that a seemingly close problem of computing the geodesic length of elements in $S_{r,2}$ is $NP$-complete. We prove also that one can compute Fox derivatives of elements from $S_{r,d}$ in time $O(n^3 r d)$, in particular one can use efficiently the Magnus embedding in computations with free solvable groups. Our approach is based on such classical tools as the Magnus embedding and Fox calculus, as well as, on a relatively new geometric ideas, in particular, we establish a direct link between Fox derivatives and geometric flows on Cayley graphs.
We present an algorithm to convert a word of length $n$ in the standard generators of the solvable Baumslag-Solitar group $BS(1,p)$ into a geodesic word, which runs in linear time and $O(n\log n)$ space on a random access machine.
We prove that, for a finitely generated residually finite group, having solvable word problem is not a sufficient condition to be a subgroup of a finitely presented residually finite group. The obstruction is given by a residually finite group with solvable word problem for which there is no effective method that allows, given some non-identity element, to find a morphism onto a finite group in which this element has a non-trivial image. We also prove that the depth function of this group grows faster than any recursive function.
In this work, we give a complete description of the language of geodesic words for a central extension of the fundamental group of the Klein Bottle with respect to the standard two-element generating set. Besides, we prove that there are no dead ends in the group. Finally, we give a new sufficient condition for the absence of dead ends.
We study equations in groups G with unique m-th roots for each positive integer m. A word equation in two letters is an expression of the form w(X,A) = B, where w is a finite word in the alphabet {X,A}. We think of A,B in G as fixed coefficients, and X in G as the unknown. Certain word equations, such as XAXAX=B, have solutions in terms of radicals, while others such as XXAX = B do not. We obtain the first known infinite families of word equations not solvable by radicals, and conjecture a complete classification. To a word w we associate a polynomial P_w in Z[x,y] in two commuting variables, …
In this paper, we give a complete description of the language of geodesic words for the discrete Heisenberg group $H(\mathbb{Z})$ with respect to the standard two-element generating set. More precisely, we prove that the only dead end elements in $H(\mathbb{Z})$ are nontrivial elements of the commutator subgroup. We give a description of their geodesic representatives, which are called dead end words. The description is based on a minimal perimeter polyomino concept. Finally, we prove that any geodesic word in $H(\mathbb{Z})$ is a prefix of a dead end word.
Parabolic subgroups and word problem in virtual Artin groups
Instituto de Matemáticas de la Universidad de Sevilla (IMUS) and Departamento de Álgebra, Universidad de Sevilla（塞维利亚大学数学研究所（IMUS）和代数系）；Department of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University and Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences（赫瑞-瓦特大学数学系和麦克斯韦数学科学研究所）；Université Bourgogne Europe, CNRS, IMB, UMR 5584（勃艮第欧洲大学、法国国家科学研究中心、IMB）
We show that for any finite group $G$ and for any $d$ there exists a word $w\in F_{d}$ such that a $d$-tuple in $G$ satisfies $w$ if and only if it generates a solvable subgroup. In particular, if $G$ itself is not solvable, then it cannot be obtained as a quotient of the one relator group $F_{d}/<w>$. As a corollary, the probability that a word is satisfied in a fixed non-solvable group can be made arbitrarily small, answering a question of Alon Amit.
We exhibit a regular language of geodesics for a large set of elements of $BS(1,n)$ and show that the growth rate of this language is the growth rate of the group. This provides a straightforward calculation of the growth rate of $BS(1,n)$, which was initially computed by Collins, Edjvet and Gill in [5]. Our methods are based on those we develop in [8] to show that $BS(1,n)$ has a positive density of elements of positive, negative and zero conjugation curvature, as introduced by Bar-Natan, Duchin and Kropholler in [1].
We prove that the power word problem for certain metabelian subgroups of $\mathsf{GL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ (including the solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups $\mathsf{BS}(1,q) = \langle a,t \mid t a t^{-1} = a^q \rangle$) belongs to the circuit complexity class $\mathsf{TC}^0$. In the power word problem, the input consists of group elements $g_1, \ldots, g_d$ and binary encoded integers $n_1, \ldots, n_d$ and it is asked whether $g_1^{n_1} \cdots g_d^{n_d} = 1$ holds. Moreover, we prove that the knapsack problem for $\mathsf{BS}(1,q)$ is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete. In the knapsack problem, the input consis…
We show that every countable group H with solvable word problem (=computable group) can be subnormally embedded into a 2-generated group G which also has solvable word problem. Moreover, the membership problem for H < G is also solvable. We also give estimates of time and space complexity of the word problem in G and of the membership problem for H < G.
We prove that seesaw words exist in Thompson's Group F(N) for N=2,3,4,... with respect to the standard finite generating set X. A seesaw word w with swing k has only geodesic representatives ending in g^k or g^{-k} (for given g\in X) and at least one geodesic representative of each type. The existence of seesaw words with arbitrarily large swing guarantees that F(N) is neither synchronously combable nor has a regular language of geodesics. Additionally, we prove that dead ends (or k--pockets) exist in F(N) with respect to X and all have depth 2. A dead end w is a word for which no geodesic pat…
We investigate intersections of geodesic lines in $H^2$ and in an associated tree T, proving the following result. Let M be a punctured hyperbolic torus and let $γ$ be a closed geodesic in M. Any edge of any triangle formed by distinct geodesic lines in the preimage of $γ$ in $H^2$ is shorter then $γ$. However, a similar result does not hold in the tree T. Let W be a reduced and cyclically reduced word in $π_1(M) = <x,y>$. We construct several examples of triangles in T formed by distinct axes in T stabilized by conjugates of W such that an edge in those triangles is longer than L(W). We also …
For an element in $BS(1,n) = \langle t,a | tat^{-1} = a^n \rangle$ written in the normal form $t^{-u}a^vt^w$ with $u,w \geq 0$ and $v \in \mathbb{Z}$, we exhibit a geodesic word representing the element and give a formula for its word length with respect to the generating set $\{t,a\}$. Using this word length formula, we prove that there are sets of elements of positive density of positive, negative and zero conjugation curvature, as defined by Bar Natan, Duchin and Kropholler.
We give lower bounds on the complexity of the word problem of certain non-solvable groups: for a large class of non-solvable infinite groups, including in particular free groups, Grigorchuk's group and Thompson's groups, we prove that their word problem is $\mathsf{NC}^1$-hard. For some of these groups (including Grigorchuk's group and Thompson's groups) we prove that the compressed word problem (which is equivalent to the circuit evaluation problem) is $\mathsf{PSPACE}$-complete.
We prove that the compressed word problem in a group that is hyperbolic relative to a collection of free abelian subgroups is solvable in polynomial time.
We study the geometry of horospherical products by providing a description of their distances, geodesics and visual boundary. These products contains both discrete and continuous examples, including Cayley graphs of lamplighter groups and solvable Lie groups of the form IR semi-direct product with (N1 xN2), where N1 and N2 are two simply connected, nilpotent Lie groups.
We describe a family of words in Thompson's group F which present a challenge to the question of finding canonical minimal length representatives, and which show that F is not combable by geodesics. These words have the property that there are only two possible suffixes of long lengths for geodesic paths to the word from the identity; one is of the form $g^k$ and the other of the form $g^{-k}$ where g is a generator of the group.
In the paper we characterize the class of finite solvable groups by two-variable identities in a way similar to the characterization of finite nilpotent groups by Engel identities. More precisely, a sequence of words $u_1,...,u_n,... $ is called correct if $u_k\equiv 1$ in a group $G$ implies $u_m\equiv 1$ in a group $G$ for all $m>k$. We are looking for an explicit correct sequence of words $u_1(x,y),...,u_n(x,y),...$ such that a group $G$ is solvable if and only if for some $n$ the word $u_n$ is an identity in $G$. Let $u_1=x^{-2}y\min x$, and $u_{n+1} = [xu_nx\min,yu_ny\min]$. The main resu…
We design new deterministic and randomized algorithms for computational problems in free solvable groups. In particular, we prove that the word problem and the power problem can be solved in quasi-linear time and the conjugacy problem can be solved in quasi-quartic time by Monte Carlo type algorithms.
A regular set of words is ($k$-)locally testable if membership of a word in the set is determined by the nature of its subwords of some bounded length $k$. In this article we study groups for which the set of all geodesic words with respect to some generating set is ($k$-)locally testable, and we call such groups ($k$-)locally testable. We show that a group is \klt{1} if and only if it is free abelian. We show that the class of ($k$-)locally testable groups is closed under taking finite direct products. We show also that a locally testable group has finitely many conjugacy classes of torsion e…
We prove that for any infinite right-angled Coxeter or Artin group, its spherical and geodesic growth rates (with respect to the standard generating set) either take values in the set of Perron numbers, or equal $1$. Also, we compute the average number of geodesics representing an element of given word length in such groups.
We prove that any Artin group of large type is shortlex automatic with respect to its standard generating set, and that the set of all geodesic words over the same generating set satisfies the Falsification by Fellow-Traveller Property (FFTP) and hence is regular.
Groups with the falsification by fellow traveler property are known to have solvable word problem, but they are not known to be automatic or to have finite convergent rewriting systems. In this paper, we show that these groups admit a generalization of the two properties; namely, they are geodesically autostackable. As a key part of proving this, we show that a wider class of groups, namely groups with a weight non-increasing synchronously regular convergent prefix-rewriting system, have a bounded regular convergent prefix-rewriting system.
We prove that elements of the Hanoi Towers groups $\mathcal{H}_m$ have depth bounded from above by a poly-logarithmic function $O(\log^{m-2} n)$, where $n$ is the length of an element. Therefore the word problem in groups $\mathcal{H}_m$ is solvable in subexponential time $\exp(O(\log^{m-2} n))$.
We prove that the word problem of a finitely generated group $G$ is in NP (solvable in polynomial time by a non-deterministic Turing machine) if and only if this group is a subgroup of a finitely presented group $H$ with polynomial isoperimetric function. The embedding can be chosen in such a way that $G$ has bounded distortion in $H$.
Instituto Argentino de Matemática Alberto P. Calderón-CONICET（阿尔贝托·P·卡尔德龙阿根廷数学研究所-CONICET）；Departamento de Matemática, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学工程学院数学系）
We define a large class of abstract Coxeter groups, that we call $\infty$--spanned, and for which the word growth rate and the geodesic growth rate appear to be Perron numbers. This class contains a fair amount of Coxeter groups acting on hyperbolic spaces, thus corroborating a conjecture by Kellerhals and Perren. We also show that for this class the geodesic growth rate strictly dominates the word growth rate.
We show that being finitely presentable and being finitely presentable with solvable word problem are quasi-isometry invariants of finitely generated left cancellative monoids. Our main tool is an elementary, but useful, geometric characterisation of finite presentability for left cancellative monoids. We also give examples to show that this characterisation does not extend to monoids in general, and indeed that properties such as solvable word problem are not isometry invariants for general monoids.
We investigate the geometry of word metrics on fundamental groups of manifolds associated with the generating sets consisting of elements represented by closed geodesics. We ask whether the diameter of such a metric is finite or infinite. The first answer we interpret as an abundance of closed geodesics, while the second one as their scarcity. We discuss examples for both cases.
A group has finite palindromic width if there exists $n$ such that every element can be expressed as a product of $n$ or fewer palindromic words. We show that if $G$ has finite palindromic width with respect to some generating set, then so does $G \wr \mathbb{Z}^{r}$. We also give a new, self-contained, proof that finitely generated metabelian groups have finite palindromic width. Finally, we show that solvable groups satisfying the maximal condition on normal subgroups (max-n) have finite palindromic width.
We show that the conjugacy problem is solvable in [finitely generated free]-by-cyclic groups, by using a result of O. Maslakova that one can algorithmically find generating sets for the fixed subgroups of free group automorphisms, and one of P. Brinkmann that one can determine whether two cyclic words in a free group are mapped to each other by some power of a given automorphism. The algorithm effectively computes a conjugating element, if it exists. We also solve the power conjugacy problem and give an algorithm to recognize if two given elements of a finitely generated free group are Reideme…
The solvable Farb growth of a group quantifies how well-approximated the group is by its finite solvable quotients. In this note we present a new characterization of polycyclic groups which are virtually nilpotent. That is, we show that a group has solvable Farb growth which is at most polynomial in $\log(n)$ if and only if the group is polycyclic and virtually nilpotent. We also give new results concerning approximating oriented surface groups by nilpotent quotients. As a consequence of this, we prove that a natural number $C$ exists so that any nontrivial element of the $Ck$th term of the lo…
We study the geodesic growth series of the braid group on three strands, B_3 := <a,b|aba = bab>. We show that the set of geodesics of B_3 with respect to the generating set S := {a,b,a^-1,b^-1} is a regular language, and we provide an explicit computation of the geodesic growth series with respect to this set of generators. In the process, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a freely reduced word w in S^* to be geodesic in B_3 with respect to S. Also, we show that the translation length with respect to S of any element in B_3 is an integer.
Bogopolski, Martino and Ventura in [BMV10] introduced a general criteria to construct groups extensions with unsolvable conjugacy problem using short exact sequences. We prove that such extensions have always solvable word problem. This makes the proposed construction a systematic way to obtain finitely presented groups with solvable word problem and unsolvable conjugacy problem. It is believed that such groups are important in cryptography. For this, and as an example, we provide an explicit construction of an extension of Thompson group F and we propose it as a base for a public key cryptogr…
We investigate which free constructions (amalgamated products and HNN-extensions) over word hyperbolic groups produce groups that are again word hyperbolic. A complete answer is obtained for the case when the amalgamated subgroups are virtually cyclic. The results are applied, in particular, to show that a ${\bf Q}$-completion of a torsion-free hyperbolic group has solvable word problem and conjugacy problem.
We prove that a finitely generated group $G$ is virtually free if and only if there exists a generating set for $G$ and $k > 0$ such that all $k$-locally geodesic words with respect to that generating set are geodesic.
Let G be a finite group with a generating set A. By the (symmetric) diameter of G with respect to A we mean the maximum over g in G of the length of the shortest word in (A union A inverse)A expressing g.By the (symmetric) diameter of G we mean the maximum of (symmetric) diameter over all generating sets of G. Let n greater than or equal to 1, by G power n we mean the n-th direct power of G. For n greater than or equal to 1 and finite non-abelian solvable group G we find an upper bound, growing polynomially with respect to n, for the symmetric diameter and the diameter of G power n.
We describe a procedure which verifies that a group given by generators and relators is word-hyperbolic. This procedure always works with a group which is word-hyperbolic, provided there is sufficient memory and time devoted to the problem. If the group is not word-hyperbolic, the procedure continues indefinitely. We also describe a procedure which computes the thinness of geodesic triangles in the Cayley graph of a word-hyperbolic group. Again this procedure is bound to work, given sufficient memory and time.
The word problem is an old and central problem in (computational) group theory. It is well-known that the word problem is undecidable in general, but decidable for specific types of presentations. Consistent polycyclic presentations are an important class of group presentations with solvable word problem. These presentations play a fundamental role in the algorithmic theory of polycyclic groups. Problems analogous to the word problem arise when computing with other algebraic structures. Various aspects of this topic are considered in the literature. The aim of this paper is to provide a genera…
We study the horofunction boundary of an Artin group of dihedral type with its word metric coming from either the usual Artin generators or the dual generators. In both cases, we determine the horoboundary and say which points are Busemann points, that is the limits of geodesic rays. In the case of the dual generators, it turns out that all boundary points are Busemann points, but this is not true for the Artin generators. We also characterise the geodesics with respect to the dual generators, which allows us to calculate the associated geodesic growth series.
The braid group has recently attracted much attention. This is primarily based upon the discovery of its usage in various cryptosystems [AAG],[KLCHKP]. One major focus of current research has been in solving decision problems in braid groups and analyzing their complexity. Among the decision problems which have been investigated are: the word problem, the conjugacy problem and the conjugacy search problem. One decision problem which has not been thoroughly pursued is the generalized word problem. It can be shown that this problem is, in general, unsolvable for braid groups of index greater the…
The main objective of this paper is the following two results. (1) There exists a computable bi-orderable group that does not have a computable bi-ordering; (2) There exists a bi-orderable, two-generated recursively presented solvable group with undecidable word problem. Both of the groups can be found among two-generated solvable groups of derived length $3$. (1) answers a question posed by Downey and Kurtz; (2) answers a question posed by Bludov and Glass in Kourovka Notebook. One of the technical tools used to obtain the main results is a computational extension of an embedding theorem of B…
We study the impact of certain identities and probabilistic identities on the structure of finite groups. More specifically, let $w$ be a nontrivial word in $d$ distinct variables and let $G$ be a finite group for which the word map $w_G:G^d\rightarrow G$ has a fiber of size at least $ρ|G|^d$ for some fixed $ρ>0$. We show that, for certain words $w$, this implies that $G$ has a normal solvable subgroup of index bounded above in terms of $w$ and $ρ$. We also show that, for a larger family of words $w$, this implies that the nonsolvable length of $G$ is bounded above in terms of $w$ and $ρ$, thu…
We show that for each element $g$ of a Garside group, there exists a positive integer $m$ such that $g^m$ is conjugate to a periodically geodesic element $h$, an element with $|h^n|_\D=|n|\cdot|h|_\D$ for all integers $n$, where $|g|_\D$ denotes the shortest word length of $g$ with respect to the set $\D$ of simple elements. We also show that there is a finite-time algorithm that computes, given an element of a Garside group, its stable super summit set.
We explore the geometry of the Cayley graphs of the lamplighter groups and a wide range of wreath products. We show that these groups have dead end elements of arbitrary depth with respect to their natural generating sets. An element $w$ in a group $G$ with finite generating set $X$ is a dead end element if no geodesic ray from the identity to $w$ in the Cayley graph $Γ(G,X)$ can be extended past $w$. Additionally, we describe some nonconvex behavior of paths between elements in these Cayley graphs and seesaw words, which are potential obstructions to these graphs satisfying the $k$-fellow tra…
In this work we introduce a new succinct variant of the word problem in a finitely generated group $G$, which we call the power word problem: the input word may contain powers $p^x$, where $p$ is a finite word over generators of $G$ and $x$ is a binary encoded integer. The power word problem is a restriction of the compressed word problem, where the input word is represented by a straight-line program (i.e., an algebraic circuit over $G$). The main result of the paper states that the power word problem for a finitely generated free group $F$ is AC$^0$-Turing-reducible to the word problem for $…
We study a class of inverse monoids of the form M = Inv< X | w=1 >, where the single relator w has a combinatorial property that we call sparse. For a sparse word w, we prove that the word problem for M is decidable. We also show that the set of words in (X \cup X^{-1})^* that represent the identity in M is a deterministic context free language, and that the set of geodesics in the Schutzenberger graph of the identity of M is a regular language.
This paper studies decision problems for semigroups that are word-hyperbolic in the sense of Duncan & Gilman. A fundamental investigation reveals that the natural definition of a `word-hyperbolic structure' has to be strengthened slightly in order to define a unique semigroup up to isomorphism. The isomorphism problem is proven to be undecidable for word-hyperbolic semigroups (in contrast to the situation for word-hyperbolic groups). It is proved that it is undecidable whether a word-hyperbolic semigroup is automatic, asynchronously automatic, biautomatic, or asynchronously biautomatic. (These…
We describe a constructive, cubic time solution to the conjugacy problem in Artin groups of extra-large type, which was proved solvable in those groups by Appel and Schupp. We use results from two of our previous papers that characterise geodesic words in those groups, as well as the description of conjugacy between elements involving three or more generators that is given by Appel and Schupp.
We introduce the peak normal form of elements of the Baumslag-Solitar groups BS(p,q). This normal form is very close to the length-lexicographical normal form, but more symmetric. Both normal forms are geodesic. This means the normal form of an element $u^{-1}v$ yields the shortest path between $u$ and $v$ in the Cayley graph. For horocyclic elements the peak normal form and the length-lexicographical normal form coincide. The main result of this paper is that we can compute the peak normal form in polynomial time if $p$ divides $q$. As consequence we can compute geodesic lengths in this case.…
