Related papers: Snakes can be fooled into thinking they live in a …
We present obstruction results for self-similar groups regarding the generation of free groups. As a main consequence of our main results, we solve an open problem posed by Grigorchuk by showing that in an automaton group where a…
We consider the class of groups whose word problem is poly-context-free; that is, an intersection of finitely many context-free languages. We show that any group which is virtually a finitely generated subgroup of a direct product of free…
One of the most fundamental problems in tiling theory is the domino problem: given a set of tiles and tiling rules, decide if there exists a way to tile the plane using copies of tiles and following their rules. The problem is known to be…
In 1989, Dicks and Dunwoody proved the Almost Stability Theorem, which has among its corollaries the Stallings-Swan theorem that groups of cohomological dimension one are free. In this article, we use a nestedness result of Bergman,…
We consider the domino problem on Schreier graphs of self-similar groups, and more generally their monadic second-order logic. On the one hand, we prove that if the group is bounded then the graph's monadic second-order logic is decidable.…
We simulate the prisoner's dilemma and hawk-dove games on a real social acquaintance network. Using a discrete analogue of replicator dynamics, we show that surprisingly high levels of cooperation can be achieved, contrary to what happens…
Hard instances of natural computational problems are often elusive. In this note we present an example of a natural decision problem, the word problem for a certain finitely presented group, whose hard instances are easy to find. More…
The word problem of a finitely generated group is the formal language of words over the generators which are equal to the identity in the group. If this language happens to be context-free, then the group is called context-free. Finitely…
We show that the class of finitely generated virtually free groups is precisely the class of demonstrable subgroups for R. Thompson's group $V$. The class of demonstrable groups for $V$ consists of all groups which can embed into $V$ with a…
We exhibit a subset of a finite Abelian group, which tiles the group by translation, and such that its tiling complements do not have a common spectrum (orthogonal basis for their $L^2$ space consisting of group characters). This disproves…
We use language theory to study the rational subset problem for groups and monoids. We show that the decidability of this problem is preserved under graph of groups constructions with finite edge groups. In particular, it passes through…
Snake is a classic computer game, which has been around for decades. Based on this game, we study the game of Snake on arbitrary undirected graphs. A snake forms a simple path that has to move to an apple while avoiding colliding with…
We prove that the isomorphism problem for finitely generated fully residually free groups is decidable. We also show that each finitely generated fully residually free group G has a decomposition that is invariant under automorphisms of G,…
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…
We study the Fibered Isomorphism conjecture of Farrell and Jones for groups acting on trees. We show that under certain conditions the conjecture is true for groups acting on trees when the stabilizers satisfy the conjecture. These…
We construct the first example of a finitely generated group which has Serre's property (FA) (i.e., whenever it acts on a simplicial tree it fixes a vertex), but admits a fixed point-free action on an $\mathbb{R}$-tree with finite arc…
A group is said to be self-similar provided it admits a faithful state-closed representation on some regular $m$-tree and the group is said to be transitive self-similar provided additionally it induces transitive action on the first level…
We prove that the word problem is undecidable in functionally recursive groups, and that the order problem is undecidable in automata groups, even under the assumption that they are contracting.
Stackability for finitely presented groups consists of a dynamical system that iteratively moves paths into a maximal tree in the Cayley graph. Combining with formal language theoretic restrictions yields auto- or algorithmic stackability,…
The purpose of this paper is to give a simpler proof to the problem of controllability of a Hilbert snake \cite{PeSa}. Using the action of the M\"obius group of the unit sphere on the configuration space, in the context of a separable…