Max Dehn, Axel Thue, and the Undecidable

This is a short essay on the roles of Max Dehn and Axel Thue in the formulation of the word problem for (semi)groups, and the story of the proofs showing that the word problem is undecidable.Comment: Definition of undecidability and unsolvability improve

The Identity Correspondence Problem and its Applications

In this paper we study several closely related fundamental problems for words and matrices. First, we introduce the Identity Correspondence Problem (ICP): whether a finite set of pairs of words (over a group alphabet) can generate an identity pair by a sequence of concatenations. We prove that ICP is undecidable by a reduction of Post's Correspondence Problem via several new encoding techniques. In the second part of the paper we use ICP to answer a long standing open problem concerning matrix semigroups: "Is it decidable for a finitely generated semigroup S of square integral matrices whether or not the identity matrix belongs to S?". We show that the problem is undecidable starting from dimension four even when the number of matrices in the generator is 48. From this fact, we can immediately derive that the fundamental problem of whether a finite set of matrices generates a group is also undecidable. We also answer several question for matrices over different number fields. Apart from the application to matrix problems, we believe that the Identity Correspondence Problem will also be useful in identifying new areas of undecidable problems in abstract algebra, computational questions in logic and combinatorics on words.Comment: We have made some proofs clearer and fixed an important typo from the published journal version of this article, see footnote 3 on page 1

Regular homotopy of Hurwitz curves

We prove that any two irreducible cuspidal Hurwitz curves $C_0$ and $C_1$ (or more generally, curves with A-type singularities) in the Hirzebruch surface $F_N$ with coinciding homology classes and sets of singularities are regular homotopic; and symplectically regular homotopic if $C_0$ and $C_1$ are symplectic with respect to a compatible symplectic form.Comment: 26 page

Minsky machines and algorithmic problems

This is a survey of using Minsky machines to study algorithmic problems in semigroups, groups and other algebraic systems.Comment: 19 page

On C*-algebras associated to right LCM semigroups

We initiate the study of the internal structure of C*-algebras associated to a left cancellative semigroup in which any two principal right ideals are either disjoint or intersect in another principal right ideal; these are variously called right LCM semigroups or semigroups that satisfy Clifford's condition. Our main findings are results about uniqueness of the full semigroup C*-algebra. We build our analysis upon a rich interaction between the group of units of the semigroup and the family of constructible right ideals. As an application we identify algebraic conditions on S under which C*(S) is purely infinite and simple.Comment: 31 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

Groups of Fibonacci type revisited

This article concerns a class of groups of Fibonacci type introduced by Johnson and Mawdesley that includes Conway?s Fibonacci groups, the Sieradski groups, and the Gilbert-Howie groups. This class of groups provides an interesting focus for developing the theory of cyclically presented groups and, following questions by Bardakov and Vesnin and by Cavicchioli, Hegenbarth, and Repov?s, they have enjoyed renewed interest in recent years. We survey results concerning their algebraic properties, such as isomorphisms within the class, the classification of the finite groups, small cancellation properties, abelianizations, asphericity, connections with Labelled Oriented Graph groups, and the semigroups of Fibonacci type. Further, we present a new method of proving the classification of the finite groups that deals with all but three groups