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The word problem for discrete groups is well-known to be undecidable by a Turing Machine; more precisely, it is reducible both to and from and thus equivalent to the discrete Halting Problem. The present work introduces and studies a real…
Two finite words $u$ and $v$ are $k$-binomially equivalent if, for each word $x$ of length at most $k$, $x$ appears the same number of times as a subsequence (i.e., as a scattered subword) of both $u$ and $v$. This notion generalizes…
In 2013, Fici and Zamboni proved a number of theorems about finite and infinite words having only a small number of factors that are palindromes. In this paper we rederive some of their results, and obtain some new ones, by a different…
It is well known that the set of values of a lower central word in a group $G$ need not be a subgroup. For a fixed lower central word $\gamma_r$ and for $p\ge 5$, Guralnick showed that if $G$ is a finite $p$-group such that the verbal…
We exhibit a recurrence on the number of discrete line segments joining two integer points in the plane using an encoding of such segments as balanced words of given length and height over the two-letter alphabet $\{0,1\}$. We give…
We introduce two classes of morphisms over the alphabet $A=\{0,1\}$ whose fixed points contain infinitely many antipalindromic factors. An antipalindrome is a finite word invariant under the action of the antimorphism…
In this paper, we study combinatorial and structural properties of a new class of finite and infinite words that are 'rich' in palindromes in the utmost sense. A characteristic property of so-called "rich words" is that all complete returns…
The theorem of factorisation forests shows the existence of nested factorisations -- a la Ramsey -- for finite words. This theorem has important applications in semigroup theory, and beyond. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the…
We prove that a semigroup generated by a reversible two-state Mealy automaton is either finite or free of rank 2. This fact leads to the decidability of finiteness for groups generated by two-state or two-letter invertible-reversible Mealy…
Let F_k be the free group on k generators. A word w \in F_k is called primitive if it belongs to some basis of F_k. We investigate two criteria for primitivity, and consider more generally, subgroups of F_k which are free factors. The first…
We initiate a new, computational approach to a classical problem: certifying non-freeness of ($2$-generator, parabolic) M\"{o}bius subgroups of $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Q})$. The main tools used are algorithms for Zariski dense groups and…
Let $\alpha \in \mathbb{R}$ and let $$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 1\end{bmatrix} \ \text{and} \ B_{\alpha} = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ \alpha & 1\end{bmatrix}.$$ The subgroup $G_\alpha$ of $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ is a group generated…
Motivated by issues arising in computer science, we investigate the loop-free paths from the identity transformation and corresponding straight words in the Cayley graph of a finite transformation semigroup with a fixed generator set. Of…
We develop a refinement of Whitehead's algorithm for primitive words in a free group. We generalize to subgroups, establishing a strengthened version of Whitehead's algorithm for free factors. We make use of these refinements in proving new…
A special inverse monoid is one defined by a presentation where all the defining relations have the form $r = 1$. By a result of Ivanov Margolis and Meakin the word problem for such an inverse monoid can often be reduced to the word problem…
We study fibers of word maps in finite, profinite, and residually finite groups. Our main result is that, for any word w in the free group on d generators, there exists $\epsilon > 0$ such that if G is a residually finite group with…
In this paper we prove several results regarding decidability of the membership problem for certain submonoids in amalgamated free products and HNN extensions of groups. These general results are then applied to solve the prefix membership…
The Chen-Fox-Lyndon theorem states that every finite word over a fixed alphabet can be uniquely factorized as a lexicographically nonincreasing sequence of Lyndon words. This theorem can be used to define the family of Lyndon words in a…
We introduce the first provably efficient algorithm to check if a finitely generated subgroup of an almost simple semi-simple group over the rationals is Zariski-dense. We reduce this question to one of computing Galois groups, and to this…
We give a uniform explicit construction of finite two-generator presentations for the special linear groups over the integers in all ranks at least three. The construction builds on the generating-pair work of Conder--Liversidge--Vsemirnov…