The submonoid and rational subset membership problems for graph groups

We show that the membership problem in a finitely generated submonoid of a graph group (also called a right-angled Artin group or a free partially commutative group) is decidable if and only if the independence graph (commutation graph) is a transitive forest. As a consequence we obtain the first example of a finitely presented group with a decidable generalized word problem that does not have a decidable membership problem for finitely generated submonoids. We also show that the rational subset membership problem is decidable for a graph group if and only if the independence graph is a transitive forest, answering a question of Kambites, Silva, and the second author. Finally we prove that for certain amalgamated free products and HNN-extensions the rational subset and submonoid membership problems are recursively equivalent. In particular, this applies to finitely generated groups with two or more ends that are either torsion-free or residually finite

Submonoids and rational subsets of groups with infinitely many ends

In this paper we show that the membership problems for finitely generated submonoids and for rational subsets are recursively equivalent for groups with two or more ends

Branching-time model checking of one-counter processes

One-counter processes (OCPs) are pushdown processes which operate only on a unary stack alphabet. We study the computational complexity of model checking computation tree logic (CTL) over OCPs. A PSPACE upper bound is inherited from the modal mu-calculus for this problem. First, we analyze the periodic behaviour of CTL over OCPs and derive a model checking algorithm whose running time is exponential only in the number of control locations and a syntactic notion of the formula that we call leftward until depth. Thus, model checking fixed OCPs against CTL formulas with a fixed leftward until depth is in P. This generalizes a result of the first author, Mayr, and To for the expression complexity of CTL's fragment EF. Second, we prove that already over some fixed OCP, CTL model checking is PSPACE-hard. Third, we show that there already exists a fixed CTL formula for which model checking of OCPs is PSPACE-hard. To obtain the latter result, we employ two results from complexity theory: (i) Converting a natural number in Chinese remainder presentation into binary presentation is in logspace-uniform NC^1 and (ii) PSPACE is AC^0-serializable. We demonstrate that our approach can be used to obtain further results. We show that model-checking CTL's fragment EF over OCPs is hard for P^NP, thus establishing a matching lower bound and answering an open question of the first author, Mayr, and To. We moreover show that the following problem is hard for PSPACE: Given a one-counter Markov decision process, a set of target states with counter value zero each, and an initial state, to decide whether the probability that the initial state will eventually reach one of the target states is arbitrarily close to 1. This improves a previously known lower bound for every level of the Boolean hierarchy by Brazdil et al

The First-Order Theory of Ground Tree Rewrite Graphs

We prove that the complexity of the uniform first-order theory of ground tree rewrite graphs is in ATIME(2^{2^{poly(n)}},O(n). Providing a matching lower bound, we show that there is some fixed ground tree rewrite graph whose first-order theory is hard for ATIME(2^{2^{poly(n)}},poly(n)) with respect to logspace reductions. Finally, we prove that there exists a fixed ground tree rewrite graph together with a single unary predicate in form of a regular tree language such that the resulting structure has a non-elementary first-order theory

Subgroup Membership in GL(2,Z)

It is shown that the subgroup membership problem for a virtually free group can be decided in polynomial time where all group elements are represented by so-called power words, i.e., words of the form p_1^{z_1} p_2^{z_2} ? p_k^{z_k}. Here the p_i are explicit words over the generating set of the group and all z_i are binary encoded integers. As a corollary, it follows that the subgroup membership problem for the matrix group GL(2,?) can be decided in polynomial time when all matrix entries are given in binary notation

Branching-time Model Checking of One-counter Processes

One-counter processes (OCPs) are pushdown processes which operate only on a unary stack alphabet. We study the computational complexity of model checking computation tree logic ($CTL$) over OCPs. A $PSPACE$ upper bound is inherited from the modal $mu$-calculus for this problem. First, we analyze the periodic behaviour of $CTL$ over OCPs and derive a model checking algorithm whose running time is exponential only in the number of control locations and a syntactic notion of the formula that we call leftward until depth. Thus, model checking fixed OCPs against $CTL$ formulas with a fixed leftward until depth is in $P$. This generalizes a result of the first author, Mayr, and To for the expression complexity of $CTL$\u27s fragment $EF$. Second, we prove that already over some fixed OCP, $CTL$ model checking is $PSPACE$-hard. Third, we show that there already exists a fixed $CTL$ formula for which model checking of OCPs is $PSPACE$-hard. For the latter, we employ two results from complexity theory: (i) Converting a natural number in Chinese remainder presentation into binary presentation is in logspace-uniform $NC^1$ and (ii) $PSPACE$ is $AC^0$-serializable. We demonstrate that our approach can be used to answer further open questions