40 research outputs found
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
Geodesic rewriting systems and pregroups
In this paper we study rewriting systems for groups and monoids, focusing on
situations where finite convergent systems may be difficult to find or do not
exist. We consider systems which have no length increasing rules and are
confluent and then systems in which the length reducing rules lead to
geodesics. Combining these properties we arrive at our main object of study
which we call geodesically perfect rewriting systems. We show that these are
well-behaved and convenient to use, and give several examples of classes of
groups for which they can be constructed from natural presentations. We
describe a Knuth-Bendix completion process to construct such systems, show how
they may be found with the help of Stallings' pregroups and conversely may be
used to construct such pregroups.Comment: 44 pages, to appear in "Combinatorial and Geometric Group Theory,
Dortmund and Carleton Conferences". Series: Trends in Mathematics.
Bogopolski, O.; Bumagin, I.; Kharlampovich, O.; Ventura, E. (Eds.) 2009,
Approx. 350 p., Hardcover. ISBN: 978-3-7643-9910-8 Birkhause
Decidability and Independence of Conjugacy Problems in Finitely Presented Monoids
There have been several attempts to extend the notion of conjugacy from
groups to monoids. The aim of this paper is study the decidability and
independence of conjugacy problems for three of these notions (which we will
denote by , , and ) in certain classes of finitely
presented monoids. We will show that in the class of polycyclic monoids,
-conjugacy is "almost" transitive, is strictly included in
, and the - and -conjugacy problems are decidable with linear
compexity. For other classes of monoids, the situation is more complicated. We
show that there exists a monoid defined by a finite complete presentation
such that the -conjugacy problem for is undecidable, and that for
finitely presented monoids, the -conjugacy problem and the word problem are
independent, as are the -conjugacy and -conjugacy problems.Comment: 12 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1503.0091
Multi-Head Finite Automata: Characterizations, Concepts and Open Problems
Multi-head finite automata were introduced in (Rabin, 1964) and (Rosenberg,
1966). Since that time, a vast literature on computational and descriptional
complexity issues on multi-head finite automata documenting the importance of
these devices has been developed. Although multi-head finite automata are a
simple concept, their computational behavior can be already very complex and
leads to undecidable or even non-semi-decidable problems on these devices such
as, for example, emptiness, finiteness, universality, equivalence, etc. These
strong negative results trigger the study of subclasses and alternative
characterizations of multi-head finite automata for a better understanding of
the nature of non-recursive trade-offs and, thus, the borderline between
decidable and undecidable problems. In the present paper, we tour a fragment of
this literature
Computability in constructive type theory
We give a formalised and machine-checked account of computability theory in the Calculus of Inductive Constructions (CIC), the constructive type theory underlying the Coq proof assistant. We first develop synthetic computability theory, pioneered by Richman, Bridges, and Bauer, where one treats all functions as computable, eliminating the need for a model of computation. We assume a novel parametric axiom for synthetic computability and give proofs of results like Riceâs theorem, the Myhill isomorphism theorem, and the existence of Postâs simple and hypersimple predicates relying on no other axioms such as Markovâs principle or choice axioms. As a second step, we introduce models of computation. We give a concise overview of definitions of various standard models and contribute machine-checked simulation proofs, posing a non-trivial engineering effort. We identify a notion of synthetic undecidability relative to a fixed halting problem, allowing axiom-free machine-checked proofs of undecidability. We contribute such undecidability proofs for the historical foundational problems of computability theory which require the identification of invariants left out in the literature and now form the basis of the Coq Library of Undecidability Proofs. We then identify the weak call-by-value λ-calculus L as sweet spot for programming in a model of computation. We introduce a certifying extraction framework and analyse an axiom stating that every function of type â â â is L-computable.Wir behandeln eine formalisierte und maschinengeprĂŒfte Betrachtung von Berechenbarkeitstheorie im Calculus of Inductive Constructions (CIC), der konstruktiven Typtheorie die dem Beweisassistenten Coq zugrunde liegt. Wir entwickeln erst synthetische Berechenbarkeitstheorie, vorbereitet durch die Arbeit von Richman, Bridges und Bauer, wobei alle Funktionen als berechenbar behandelt werden, ohne Notwendigkeit eines Berechnungsmodells. Wir nehmen ein neues, parametrisches Axiom fĂŒr synthetische Berechenbarkeit an und beweisen Resultate wie das Theorem von Rice, das Isomorphismus Theorem von Myhill und die Existenz von Postâs simplen und hypersimplen PrĂ€dikaten ohne Annahme von anderen Axiomen wie Markovâs Prinzip oder Auswahlaxiomen. Als zweiten Schritt fĂŒhren wir Berechnungsmodelle ein. Wir geben einen kompakten Ăberblick ĂŒber die Definition von verschiedenen Berechnungsmodellen und erklĂ€ren maschinengeprĂŒfte Simulationsbeweise zwischen diesen Modellen, welche einen hohen Konstruktionsaufwand beinhalten. Wir identifizieren einen Begriff von synthetischer Unentscheidbarkeit relativ zu einem fixierten Halteproblem welcher axiomenfreie maschinengeprĂŒfte Unentscheidbarkeitsbeweise erlaubt. Wir erklĂ€ren solche Beweise fĂŒr die historisch grundlegenden Probleme der Berechenbarkeitstheorie, die das Identifizieren von Invarianten die normalerweise in der Literatur ausgelassen werden benötigen und nun die Basis der Coq Library of Undecidability Proofs bilden. Wir identifizieren dann den call-by-value λ-KalkĂŒl L als sweet spot fĂŒr die Programmierung in einem Berechnungsmodell. Wir fĂŒhren ein zertifizierendes Extraktionsframework ein und analysieren ein Axiom welches postuliert dass jede Funktion vom Typ NâN L-berechenbar ist
On a special monoid with a single defining relation
AbstractWe show that no finite union of congruence classes [w], w being an arbitrary element of the free monoid {a, b}â with unit 1, is a context-free language if the congruence is defined by the single pair (abbaab, 1). This congruence is neither confluent nor even preperfect. The monoid formed by its congruence classes is a group which has infinitely many isomorphic proper subgroups
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
Adapting to Computer Science
Although I am not an engineer who adapted himself to computer science but a mathematician who did so, I am familiar enough with the development, concepts, and activities of this new discipline to venture an opinion of what must be adapted to in it.
Computer and Information Science is known as Informatics on the European continent. It was born as a distinct discipline barely a generation ago. As a fresh young discipline, it is an effervescent mixture of formal theory, empirical applications, and pragmatic design. Mathematics was just such an effervescent mixture in western culture from the renaissance to the middle of the twentieth century. It was then that the dynamic effect of high speed, electronic, general purpose computers accelerated the generalization of the meaning of the word computation This caused the early computer science to recruit not only mathematicians but also philosophers (especially logicians), linguists, psychologists, even economists, as well as physicists, and a variety of engineers.
Thus we are, perforce, discussing the changes and adaptations of individuals to disciplines, and especially of people in one discipline to another. As we all know, the very word discipline indicates that there is an initial special effort by an individual to force himself or herself to change. The change involves adaptation of one\u27s perceptions to a special way of viewing certain aspects of the - world, and also one\u27s behavior in order to produce special results. For example we are familiar with the enormous prosthetic devices that physicists have added to their natural sensors and perceptors in order to perceive minute particles and to smash atoms in order to do so (at, we might add, enormous expense, and enormous stretching of computational activity). We are also familiar with the enormously intricate prosthetic devices mathematicians added to their computational effectors, the general symbol manipulators, called computers