The pseudo-Anosov and conjugacy problems are in $\textbf{NP} \cap \textbf{co-NP}$
Abstract
For a fixed marked surface , we construct polynomial bounds on the periodic and preperiodic lengths of the maximal splitting sequences of a projectively invariant measured train track. We give two consequences of these bounds. Firstly, that the problem of deciding whether a mapping class is pseudo-Anosov lies in . This is dual to the previously known result that the pseudo-Anosov problem is in . Secondly, that the problem of deciding whether two mapping classes are conjugate lies in . Similarly, this is the dual to the previously known result that the conjugacy problem is in . As usual, in both cases we immediately obtain exponential time solutions to these problems. A version of these algorithms have been implemented as part of flipper.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1410.1358,
title = {The pseudo-Anosov and conjugacy problems are in $\textbf{NP} \cap \textbf{co-NP}$},
author = {Mark C. Bell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1410.1358},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
26 pages, 6 figures, updated abstract, introduction and added section detailing the conjugacy problem