English

Efficient computations with counting functions on free groups and free monoids

Group Theory 2021-10-01 v1 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

We present efficient algorithms to decide whether two given counting functions on non-abelian free groups or monoids are at bounded distance from each other and to decide whether two given counting quasimorphisms on non-abelian free groups are cohomologous. We work in the multi-tape Turing machine model with non-constant time arithmetic operations. In the case of integer coefficients we construct an algorithm of linear space and time complexity (assuming that the rank is at least 33 in the monoid case). In the case of rational coefficients we prove that the time complexity is O(NlogN)O(N\log N), where NN denotes the size of the input, i.e. it is as fast as addition of rational numbers (implemented using the Harvey--van der Hoeven algorithm for integer multiplication). These algorithms are based on our previous work which characterizes bounded counting functions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2109.14947,
  title  = {Efficient computations with counting functions on free groups and free monoids},
  author = {Tobias Hartnick and Alexey Talambutsa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.14947},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T06:30:44.241Z