Related papers: Unsolvable problems about higher-dimensional knots…

We prove that there is no algorithm that can determine whether or not a finitely presented group has a non-trivial finite quotient; indeed, this remains undecidable among the fundamental groups of compact, non-positively curved square…

We show that every countable group H with solvable word problem (=computable group) can be subnormally embedded into a 2-generated group G which also has solvable word problem. Moreover, the membership problem for H < G is also solvable. We…

As a step towards resolving a question of Ru\v{s}kuc on the decidability of joint embedding for hereditary classes of permutations, which may be viewed as structures in a language of 2 linear orders, we show the corresponding problem is…

We discuss the possibility of the existence of finite algorithms that may give distinct knot classes. In particular we present two attempts for such algorithms which seem promising, one based on knot projections on a plane, the other on…

We consider the problem of deciding whether a polygonal knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is unknotted, capable of being continuously deformed without self-intersection so that it lies in a plane. We show that this problem, {\sc…

We show that the problem of determining whether a knot in the 3-sphere is non-trivial lies in NP. This is a consequence of the following more general result. The problem of determining whether the Thurston norm of a second homology class in…

Finite-order invariants of knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds (including non-orientable ones) are constructed and studied by methods of the topology of discriminant sets. Obstructions to the integrability of admissible weight systems to…

The classical knot groups are the fundamental groups of the complements of smooth or piecewise-linear (PL) locally-flat knots. For PL knots that are not locally-flat, there is a pair of interesting groups to study: the fundamental group of…

The isomorphism problem for infinite finitely presented groups is probably the hardest among standard algorithmic problems in group theory. Classes of groups where it has been completely solved are nilpotent groups, hyperbolic groups, and…

In this article we survey recent progress in the algorithmic theory of matrix semigroups. The main objective in this area of study is to construct algorithms that decide various properties of finitely generated subsemigroups of an infinite…

We show that the domino problem is undecidable on orbit graphs of non-deterministic substitutions which satisfy a technical property. As an application, we prove that the domino problem is undecidable for the fundamental group of any closed…

We analyze the connections between the mathematical theory of knots and quantum physics by addressing a number of algorithmic questions related to both knots and braid groups. Knots can be distinguished by means of `knot invariants', among…

We prove that, for every integer $n \ge 2$, a finite or infinite countable group $G$ can be embedded into a 2-generated group $H$ in such a way that the solvability of quadratic equations of length at most $n$ is preserved, i.e., every…

We prove that the problems of representing a finite ordered complemented semigroup or finite lattice-ordered semigroup as an algebra of binary relations over a finite set are undecidable. In the case that complementation is taken with…

We show that it is impossible to algorithmically decide if the l^2-cohomology of the universal cover of a finite CW complex is trivial, even if we only consider complexes whose fundamental group is equal to the elementary amenable group…

The problem of embedding an ample semigroup in an inverse semigroup as a (2, 1, 1)-type subalgebra is known to be undecidable. In this article, we investigate the problem for certain classes of ample semigroups. We also give examples of…

In order to classify concordance classes of codimension 2 embeddings in a manifold M, we need to determine the complement of such an embedding. These complements are spaces over M well defined up to some homology equivalence. We construct a…

We study irreducible specializations, in particular when group-preserving specializations may not exist. We obtain a criterion in terms of embedding problems. We include several applications to analogs of Schinzel's hypothesis H and to the…

Infamously, the finite and unrestricted implication problems for the classes of i) functional and inclusion dependencies together, and ii) embedded multivalued dependencies alone are each undecidable. Famously, the restriction of i) to…

Several recent problems in the representation theory of finite groups require determining whether certain characters of almost simple groups belong to the principal block. Since the values of these characters are not yet known, we employ…