218 research outputs found
On the rational subset problem for groups
We use language theory to study the rational subset problem for groups and
monoids. We show that the decidability of this problem is preserved under graph
of groups constructions with finite edge groups. In particular, it passes
through free products amalgamated over finite subgroups and HNN extensions with
finite associated subgroups. We provide a simple proof of a result of
Grunschlag showing that the decidability of this problem is a virtual property.
We prove further that the problem is decidable for a direct product of a group
G with a monoid M if and only if membership is uniformly decidable for
G-automata subsets of M. It follows that a direct product of a free group with
any abelian group or commutative monoid has decidable rational subset
membership.Comment: 19 page
A strong geometric hyperbolicity property for directed graphs and monoids
We introduce and study a strong "thin triangle"' condition for directed
graphs, which generalises the usual notion of hyperbolicity for a metric space.
We prove that finitely generated left cancellative monoids whose right Cayley
graphs satisfy this condition must be finitely presented with polynomial Dehn
functions, and hence word problems in NP. Under the additional assumption of
right cancellativity (or in some cases the weaker condition of bounded
indegree), they also admit algorithms for more fundamentally
semigroup-theoretic decision problems such as Green's relations L, R, J, D and
the corresponding pre-orders.
In contrast, we exhibit a right cancellative (but not left cancellative)
finitely generated monoid (in fact, an infinite class of them) whose Cayley
graph is a essentially a tree (hence hyperbolic in our sense and probably any
reasonable sense), but which is not even recursively presentable. This seems to
be strong evidence that no geometric notion of hyperbolicity will be strong
enough to yield much information about finitely generated monoids in absolute
generality.Comment: Exposition improved. Results unchange
Homology of Gaussian groups
We describe new combinatorial methods for constructing an explicit free
resolution of Z by ZG-modules when G is a group of fractions of a monoid where
enough least common multiples exist (``locally Gaussian monoid''), and,
therefore, for computing the homology of G. Our constructions apply in
particular to all Artin groups of finite Coxeter type, so, as a corollary, they
give new ways of computing the homology of these groups
The Word Problem for Omega-Terms over the Trotter-Weil Hierarchy
For two given -terms and , the word problem for
-terms over a variety asks whether
in all monoids in . We show that the
word problem for -terms over each level of the Trotter-Weil Hierarchy
is decidable. More precisely, for every fixed variety in the Trotter-Weil
Hierarchy, our approach yields an algorithm in nondeterministic logarithmic
space (NL). In addition, we provide deterministic polynomial time algorithms
which are more efficient than straightforward translations of the
NL-algorithms. As an application of our results, we show that separability by
the so-called corners of the Trotter-Weil Hierarchy is witnessed by
-terms (this property is also known as -reducibility). In
particular, the separation problem for the corners of the Trotter-Weil
Hierarchy is decidable
Braids: A Survey
This article is about Artin's braid group and its role in knot theory. We set
ourselves two goals: (i) to provide enough of the essential background so that
our review would be accessible to graduate students, and (ii) to focus on those
parts of the subject in which major progress was made, or interesting new
proofs of known results were discovered, during the past 20 years. A central
theme that we try to develop is to show ways in which structure first
discovered in the braid groups generalizes to structure in Garside groups,
Artin groups and surface mapping class groups. However, the literature is
extensive, and for reasons of space our coverage necessarily omits many very
interesting developments. Open problems are noted and so-labelled, as we
encounter them.Comment: Final version, revised to take account of the comments of readers. A
review article, to appear in the Handbook of Knot Theory, edited by W.
Menasco and M. Thistlethwaite. 91 pages, 24 figure
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