Word problem for groups

In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as combinatorial group theory, the word problem for a finitely generated group is the algorithmic problem of deciding whether two words in the generators represent the same element of . The word problem is a well-known example of an undecidable problem.

If is a finite set of generators for , then the word problem is the membership problem for the formal language of all words in and a formal set of inverses that map to the identity under the natural map from the free monoid with involution on to the group . If is another finite generating set for , then the word problem over the generating set is equivalent to the word problem over the generating set . Thus one can speak unambiguously of the decidability of the word problem for the finitely generated group .

The related but different uniform word problem for a class of recursively presented groups is the algorithmic problem of deciding, given as input a presentation for a group in the class and two words in the generators of , whether the words represent the same element of . Some authors require the class to be definable by a recursively enumerable set of presentations.

History

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Throughout the history of the subject, computations in groups have been carried out using various normal forms. These usually implicitly solve the word problem for the groups in question. In 1911 Max Dehn proposed that the word problem was an important area of study in its own right,[1] together with the conjugacy problem and the group isomorphism problem. In 1912 he gave an algorithm that solves both the word and conjugacy problem for the fundamental groups of closed orientable two-dimensional manifolds of genus greater than or equal to 2.[2] Subsequent authors have greatly extended Dehn's algorithm and applied it to a wide range of group theoretic decision problems.[3][4][5]

It was shown by Pyotr Novikov in 1955 that there exists a finitely presented group   such that the word problem for   is undecidable.[6] It follows immediately that the uniform word problem is also undecidable. A different proof was obtained by William Boone in 1958.[7]

The word problem was one of the first examples of an unsolvable problem to be found not in mathematical logic or the theory of algorithms, but in one of the central branches of classical mathematics, algebra. As a result of its unsolvability, several other problems in combinatorial group theory have been shown to be unsolvable as well.

The word problem is in fact solvable for many groups  . For example, polycyclic groups have solvable word problems since the normal form of an arbitrary word in a polycyclic presentation is readily computable; other algorithms for groups may, in suitable circumstances, also solve the word problem, see the Todd–Coxeter algorithm[8] and the Knuth–Bendix completion algorithm.[9] On the other hand, the fact that a particular algorithm does not solve the word problem for a particular group does not show that the group has an unsolvable word problem. For instance Dehn's algorithm does not solve the word problem for the fundamental group of the torus. However this group is the direct product of two infinite cyclic groups and so has a solvable word problem.

A more concrete description

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In more concrete terms, the uniform word problem can be expressed as a rewriting question, for literal strings.[10] For a presentation   of a group  ,   will specify a certain number of generators

 

for  . We need to introduce one letter for   and another (for convenience) for the group element represented by  . Call these letters (twice as many as the generators) the alphabet   for our problem. Then each element in   is represented in some way by a product

 

of symbols from  , of some length, multiplied in  . The string of length 0 (null string) stands for the identity element   of  . The crux of the whole problem is to be able to recognise all the ways   can be represented, given some relations.

The effect of the relations in   is to make various such strings represent the same element of  . In fact the relations provide a list of strings that can be either introduced where we want, or cancelled out whenever we see them, without changing the 'value', i.e. the group element that is the result of the multiplication.

For a simple example, consider the group given by the presentation  . Writing   for the inverse of  , we have possible strings combining any number of the symbols   and  . Whenever we see  , or   or   we may strike these out. We should also remember to strike out  ; this says that since the cube of   is the identity element of  , so is the cube of the inverse of  . Under these conditions the word problem becomes easy. First reduce strings to the empty string,  ,  ,   or  . Then note that we may also multiply by  , so we can convert   to   and convert   to  . The result is that the word problem, here for the cyclic group of order three, is solvable.

This is not, however, the typical case. For the example, we have a canonical form available that reduces any string to one of length at most three, by decreasing the length monotonically. In general, it is not true that one can get a canonical form for the elements, by stepwise cancellation. One may have to use relations to expand a string many-fold, in order eventually to find a cancellation that brings the length right down.

The upshot is, in the worst case, that the relation between strings that says they are equal in   is an Undecidable problem.

Examples

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The following groups have a solvable word problem:

Examples with unsolvable word problems are also known:

  • Given a recursively enumerable set   of positive integers that has insoluble membership problem,   is a finitely generated group with a recursively enumerable presentation whose word problem is insoluble[13]
  • Every finitely generated group with a recursively enumerable presentation and insoluble word problem is a subgroup of a finitely presented group with insoluble word problem[14]
  • The number of relators in a finitely presented group with insoluble word problem may be as low as 14 [15] or even 12.[16][17]
  • An explicit example of a reasonable short presentation with insoluble word problem is given in Collins 1986:[18][19]
 

Partial solution of the word problem

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The word problem for a recursively presented group can be partially solved in the following sense:

Given a recursive presentation   for a group  , define:
 
then there is a partial recursive function   such that:
 

More informally, there exists an algorithm that halts if  , but does not do so otherwise.

It follows that to solve the word problem for   it is sufficient to construct a recursive function   such that:

 

However   in   if and only if   in  . It follows that to solve the word problem for   it is sufficient to construct a recursive function   such that:

 

Example

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The following will be proved as an example of the use of this technique:

Theorem: A finitely presented residually finite group has solvable word problem.

Proof: Suppose   is a finitely presented, residually finite group.

Let   be the group of all permutations of the natural numbers   that fixes all but finitely many numbers. Then:

  1.   is locally finite and contains a copy of every finite group.
  2. The word problem in   is solvable by calculating products of permutations.
  3. There is a recursive enumeration of all mappings of the finite set   into  .
  4. Since   is residually finite, if   is a word in the generators   of   then   in   if and only if some mapping of   into   induces a homomorphism such that   in  .

Given these facts, the algorithm defined by the following pseudocode:

For every mapping of X into S
    If every relator in R is satisfied in S
        If w ≠ 1 in S
            return 0
        End if
    End if
End for

defines a recursive function   such that:

 

This shows that   has solvable word problem.

Unsolvability of the uniform word problem

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The criterion given above, for the solvability of the word problem in a single group, can be extended by a straightforward argument. This gives the following criterion for the uniform solvability of the word problem for a class of finitely presented groups:

To solve the uniform word problem for a class   of groups, it is sufficient to find a recursive function   that takes a finite presentation   for a group   and a word   in the generators of  , such that whenever  :
 
Boone-Rogers Theorem: There is no uniform partial algorithm that solves the word problem in all finitely presented groups with solvable word problem.

In other words, the uniform word problem for the class of all finitely presented groups with solvable word problem is unsolvable. This has some interesting consequences. For instance, the Higman embedding theorem can be used to construct a group containing an isomorphic copy of every finitely presented group with solvable word problem. It seems natural to ask whether this group can have solvable word problem. But it is a consequence of the Boone-Rogers result that:

Corollary: There is no universal solvable word problem group. That is, if   is a finitely presented group that contains an isomorphic copy of every finitely presented group with solvable word problem, then   itself must have unsolvable word problem.

Remark: Suppose   is a finitely presented group with solvable word problem and   is a finite subset of  . Let  , be the group generated by  . Then the word problem in   is solvable: given two words   in the generators   of  , write them as words in   and compare them using the solution to the word problem in  . It is easy to think that this demonstrates a uniform solution of the word problem for the class   (say) of finitely generated groups that can be embedded in  . If this were the case, the non-existence of a universal solvable word problem group would follow easily from Boone-Rogers. However, the solution just exhibited for the word problem for groups in   is not uniform. To see this, consider a group  ; in order to use the above argument to solve the word problem in  , it is first necessary to exhibit a mapping   that extends to an embedding  . If there were a recursive function that mapped (finitely generated) presentations of groups in   to embeddings into  , then a uniform solution of the word problem in   could indeed be constructed. But there is no reason, in general, to suppose that such a recursive function exists. However, it turns out that, using a more sophisticated argument, the word problem in   can be solved without using an embedding  . Instead an enumeration of homomorphisms is used, and since such an enumeration can be constructed uniformly, it results in a uniform solution to the word problem in  .

Proof that there is no universal solvable word problem group

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Suppose   were a universal solvable word problem group. Given a finite presentation   of a group  , one can recursively enumerate all homomorphisms   by first enumerating all mappings  . Not all of these mappings extend to homomorphisms, but, since   is finite, it is possible to distinguish between homomorphisms and non-homomorphisms, by using the solution to the word problem in  . "Weeding out" non-homomorphisms gives the required recursive enumeration:  .

If   has solvable word problem, then at least one of these homomorphisms must be an embedding. So given a word   in the generators of  :

 
 

Consider the algorithm described by the pseudocode:

Let n = 0
Let repeatable = TRUE
while (repeatable)
    increase n by 1
    if (solution to word problem in G reveals hn(w) ≠ 1 in G)
        Let repeatable = FALSE
output 0.

This describes a recursive function:

 

The function   clearly depends on the presentation  . Considering it to be a function of the two variables, a recursive function   has been constructed that takes a finite presentation   for a group   and a word   in the generators of a group  , such that whenever   has soluble word problem:

 

But this uniformly solves the word problem for the class of all finitely presented groups with solvable word problem, contradicting Boone-Rogers. This contradiction proves   cannot exist.

Algebraic structure and the word problem

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There are a number of results that relate solvability of the word problem and algebraic structure. The most significant of these is the Boone-Higman theorem:

A finitely presented group has solvable word problem if and only if it can be embedded in a simple group that can be embedded in a finitely presented group.

It is widely believed that it should be possible to do the construction so that the simple group itself is finitely presented. If so one would expect it to be difficult to prove as the mapping from presentations to simple groups would have to be non-recursive.

The following has been proved by Bernhard Neumann and Angus Macintyre:

A finitely presented group has solvable word problem if and only if it can be embedded in every algebraically closed group.

What is remarkable about this is that the algebraically closed groups are so wild that none of them has a recursive presentation.

The oldest result relating algebraic structure to solvability of the word problem is Kuznetsov's theorem:

A recursively presented simple group   has solvable word problem.

To prove this let   be a recursive presentation for  . Choose a nonidentity element  , that is,   in  .

If   is a word on the generators   of  , then let:

 

There is a recursive function   such that:

 

Write:

 

Then because the construction of   was uniform, this is a recursive function of two variables.

It follows that:   is recursive. By construction:

 

Since   is a simple group, its only quotient groups are itself and the trivial group. Since   in  , we see   in   if and only if   is trivial if and only if   in  . Therefore:

 

The existence of such a function is sufficient to prove the word problem is solvable for  .

This proof does not prove the existence of a uniform algorithm for solving the word problem for this class of groups. The non-uniformity resides in choosing a non-trivial element of the simple group. There is no reason to suppose that there is a recursive function that maps a presentation of a simple groups to a non-trivial element of the group. However, in the case of a finitely presented group we know that not all the generators can be trivial (Any individual generator could be, of course). Using this fact it is possible to modify the proof to show:

The word problem is uniformly solvable for the class of finitely presented simple groups.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Dehn 1911.
  2. ^ Dehn 1912.
  3. ^ Greendlinger, Martin (June 1959), "Dehn's algorithm for the word problem", Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics, 13 (1): 67–83, doi:10.1002/cpa.3160130108.
  4. ^ Lyndon, Roger C. (September 1966), "On Dehn's algorithm", Mathematische Annalen, 166 (3): 208–228, doi:10.1007/BF01361168, hdl:2027.42/46211, S2CID 36469569.
  5. ^ Schupp, Paul E. (June 1968), "On Dehn's algorithm and the conjugacy problem", Mathematische Annalen, 178 (2): 119–130, doi:10.1007/BF01350654, S2CID 120429853.
  6. ^ Novikov, P. S. (1955), "On the algorithmic unsolvability of the word problem in group theory", Proceedings of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics (in Russian), 44: 1–143, Zbl 0068.01301
  7. ^ Boone, William W. (1958), "The word problem" (PDF), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 44 (10): 1061–1065, Bibcode:1958PNAS...44.1061B, doi:10.1073/pnas.44.10.1061, PMC 528693, PMID 16590307, Zbl 0086.24701
  8. ^ Todd, J.; Coxeter, H.S.M. (1936). "A practical method for enumerating cosets of a finite abstract group". Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society. 5 (1): 26–34. doi:10.1017/S0013091500008221.
  9. ^ Knuth, D.; Bendix, P. (2014) [1970]. "Simple word problems in universal algebras". In Leech, J. (ed.). Computational Problems in Abstract Algebra: Proceedings of a Conference Held at Oxford Under the Auspices of the Science Research Council Atlas Computer Laboratory, 29th August to 2nd September 1967. Springer. pp. 263–297. ISBN 9781483159423.
  10. ^ Rotman 1994.
  11. ^ Simmons, H. (1973). "The word problem for absolute presentations". J. London Math. Soc. s2-6 (2): 275–280. doi:10.1112/jlms/s2-6.2.275.
  12. ^ Lyndon, Roger C.; Schupp, Paul E (2001). Combinatorial Group Theory. Springer. pp. 1–60. ISBN 9783540411581.
  13. ^ Collins & Zieschang 1990, p. 149.
  14. ^ Collins & Zieschang 1993, Cor. 7.2.6.
  15. ^ Collins 1969.
  16. ^ Borisov 1969.
  17. ^ Collins 1972.
  18. ^ Collins 1986.
  19. ^ We use the corrected version from John Pedersen's A Catalogue of Algebraic Systems

References

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