English

Simulations and the Lamplighter group

Combinatorics 2021-10-04 v2 Logic in Computer Science Group Theory Logic

Abstract

We introduce a notion of "simulation" for labelled graphs, in which edges of the simulated graph are realized by regular expressions in the simulating graph, and prove that the tiling problem (aka "domino problem") for the simulating graph is at least as difficult as that for the simulated graph. We apply this to the Cayley graph of the "lamplighter group" L=Z/2ZL=\mathbb Z/2\wr\mathbb Z, and more generally to "Diestel-Leader graphs". We prove that these graphs simulate the plane, and thus deduce that the seeded tiling problem is unsolvable on the group LL. We note that LL does not contain any plane in its Cayley graph, so our undecidability criterion by simulation covers cases not covered by Jeandel's criterion based on translation-like action of a product of finitely generated infinite groups. Our approach to tiling problems is strongly based on categorical constructions in graph theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.14299,
  title  = {Simulations and the Lamplighter group},
  author = {Laurent Bartholdi and Ville Salo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.14299},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Julia code to experiment with the tilings

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:41:14.041Z