Related papers: The Identity Problem in $\mathbb{Z} \wr \mathbb{Z}…
This paper studies decision problems for semigroups that are word-hyperbolic in the sense of Duncan & Gilman. A fundamental investigation reveals that the natural definition of a `word-hyperbolic structure' has to be strengthened slightly…
We investigate the complexity of deciding, given a multiplication table representing a semigroup S, a subset X of S and an element t of S, whether t can be expressed as a product of elements of X. It is well-known that this problem is…
We introduce the subgroup identification problem, and show that there is a finitely presented group G for which it is unsolvable, and that it is uniformly solvable in the class of finitely presented locally Hopfian groups. This is done as…
We study two group theoretic problems, GROUP INTERSECTION and DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP, in the setting of black-box groups, where DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP generalizes a set of problems, including GROUP MEMBERSHIP, GROUP FACTORIZATION, and…
A finitely generated group is said to be an automata group if it admits a faithful self-similar finite-state representation on some regular $m$-tree. We prove that if $G$ is a subgroup of an automata group, then for each finitely generated…
If $\mathcal{C}$ is a category of algebras closed under finite direct products, and $M_\mathcal{C}$ the commutative monoid of isomorphism classes of members of $\mathcal{C},$ with operation induced by direct product, A.Tarski defined a…
In this article we overview those aspects of the theory of affine semigroups and their algebras that have been relevant for our own research, and pose several open problems. Answers to these problems would contribute substantially to the…
With each semigroup one can associate a partial algebra, called the biordered set, which captures important algebraic and geometric features of the structure of idempotents of that semigroup. For a biordered set $\mathcal{E}$, one can…
The finiteness problem for automaton groups and semigroups has been widely studied, several partial positive results are known. However we prove that, in the most general case, the problem is undecidable. We study the case of automaton…
A permutoid is a set of partial permutations that contains the identity and is such that partial compositions, when defined, have at most one extension in the set. In 2004 Peter Cameron conjectured that there can exist no algorithm that…
This paper addresses a decision problem highlighted by Grigorchuk, Nekrashevich, and Sushchanskii, namely the finiteness problem for automaton (semi)groups. For semigroups, we give an effective sufficient but not necessary condition for…
A semigroup of binary relations (under composition) on a set $X$ is \emph{complemented} if it is closed under the taking of complements within $X\times X$. We resolve a 1991 problem of Boris Schein by showing that the class of finite unary…
The aim of this paper is to provide an atlas of identity bases for varieties generated by small semigroups and groups. To help the working mathematician easily find information, we provide a companion website that runs in the background…
The knapsack problem for groups was introduced by Miasnikov, Nikolaev, and Ushakov. It is defined for each finitely generated group $G$ and takes as input group elements $g_1,\ldots,g_n,g\in G$ and asks whether there are $x_1,\ldots,x_n\ge…
It is known that if every group satisfying an identity of the form yx ~ xU(x,y)y is abelian, so is every semigroup that satisfies that identity. Because a group has an identity element and the cancellation property, it is easier to show…
We present a new algorithm deciding if the intersection of a quasiconvex subgroup of a negatively curved group with a conjugate is finite. We also give a short proof of decidability of the membership problem for quasiconvex subgroups of…
When decomposing a finite semigroup into a wreath product of groups and aperiodic semigroups, complexity measures the minimal number of groups that are needed. Determining an algorithm to compute complexity has been an open problem for…
For a groupoid $S$ with elements $a$ and $b$, if $ba = a$, then $b$ is a left identity of $a$ and $a$ is a right zero of $b$. We define the left identity set of $a$ to be the set of all left identities of $a$ in $S$, and similarly for the…
Every semigroup which is a finite disjoint union of copies of the free mono- genic semigroup (natural numbers under addition) has soluble word prob- lem and soluble membership problem. Efficient algorithms are given for both problems.
In this paper we show that membership in finitely generated submonoids is undecidable for the free metabelian group of rank 2 and for the wreath product $\mathbb Z\wr (\mathbb Z\times \mathbb Z)$. We also show that subsemimodule membership…