Some geodesic problems in groups

We consider several algorithmic problems concerning geodesics in finitely generated groups. We show that the three geodesic problems considered by Miasnikov et al [arXiv:0807.1032] are polynomial-time reducible to each other. We study two new geodesic problems which arise in a previous paper of the authors and Fusy [arXiv:0902.0202] .Comment: 6 page

Two Non-holonomic Lattice Walks in the Quarter Plane

We present two classes of random walks restricted to the quarter plane whose generating function is not holonomic. The non-holonomy is established using the iterated kernel method, a recent variant of the kernel method. This adds evidence to a recent conjecture on combinatorial properties of walks with holonomic generating functions. The method also yields an asymptotic expression for the number of walks of length n

Random subgroups of Thompson's group FF

We consider random subgroups of Thompson's group $F$ with respect to two natural stratifications of the set of all $k$ generator subgroups. We find that the isomorphism classes of subgroups which occur with positive density are not the same for the two stratifications. We give the first known examples of {\em persistent} subgroups, whose isomorphism classes occur with positive density within the set of $k$-generator subgroups, for all sufficiently large $k$. Additionally, Thompson's group provides the first example of a group without a generic isomorphism class of subgroup. Elements of $F$ are represented uniquely by reduced pairs of finite rooted binary trees. We compute the asymptotic growth rate and a generating function for the number of reduced pairs of trees, which we show is D-finite and not algebraic. We then use the asymptotic growth to prove our density results.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figure