On varieties of meet automata

AbstractEilenberg’s variety theorem gives a bijective correspondence between varieties of languages and varieties of finite monoids. The second author gave a similar relation between conjunctive varieties of languages and varieties of semiring homomorphisms. In this paper, we add a third component to this result by considering varieties of meet automata. We consider three significant classes of languages, two of them consisting of reversible languages. We present conditions on meet automata and identities for semiring homomorphisms for their characterization

Yang-Baxter maps: dynamical point of view

A review of some recent results on the dynamical theory of the Yang-Baxter maps (also known as set-theoretical solutions to the quantum Yang-Baxter equation) is given. The central question is the integrability of the transfer dynamics. The relations with matrix factorisations, matrix KdV solitons, Poisson Lie groups, geometric crystals and tropical combinatorics are discussed and demonstrated on several concrete examples.Comment: 24 pages. Extended version of lectures given at the meeting "Combinatorial Aspect of Integrable Systems" (RIMS, Kyoto, July 2004

Subshifts with Simple Cellular Automata

A subshift is a set of infinite one- or two-way sequences over a fixed finite set, defined by a set of forbidden patterns. In this thesis, we study subshifts in the topological setting, where the natural morphisms between them are ones defined by a (spatially uniform) local rule. Endomorphisms of subshifts are called cellular automata, and we call the set of cellular automata on a subshift its endomorphism monoid. It is known that the set of all sequences (the full shift) allows cellular automata with complex dynamical and computational properties. We are interested in subshifts that do not support such cellular automata. In particular, we study countable subshifts, minimal subshifts and subshifts with additional universal algebraic structure that cellular automata need to respect, and investigate certain criteria of ‘simplicity’ of the endomorphism monoid, for each of them. In the case of countable subshifts, we concentrate on countable sofic shifts, that is, countable subshifts defined by a finite state automaton. We develop some general tools for studying cellular automata on such subshifts, and show that nilpotency and periodicity of cellular automata are decidable properties, and positive expansivity is impossible. Nevertheless, we also prove various undecidability results, by simulating counter machines with cellular automata. We prove that minimal subshifts generated by primitive Pisot substitutions only support virtually cyclic automorphism groups, and give an example of a Toeplitz subshift whose automorphism group is not finitely generated. In the algebraic setting, we study the centralizers of CA, and group and lattice homomorphic CA. In particular, we obtain results about centralizers of symbol permutations and bipermutive CA, and their connections with group structures.Siirretty Doriast