English

Quasigeodesic languages are not context-free in some non-hyperbolic groups

Group Theory 2026-04-28 v2

Abstract

We study the full language of quasigeodesics in Cayley graphs, with fixed error constants. We show that, given a non-virtually-cyclic nilpotent group or Baumslag--Solitar group, and any finite generating set, such languages fail to be context-free for sufficiently large error constants. In fact, this conclusion holds for any finitely generated group which contains one of these groups as an undistorted subgroup. This strengthens a recent theorem of Hughes, Nairne, and Spriano, who showed that such languages fail to be regular in any non-hyperbolic group, for sufficiently large error constants.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.12520,
  title  = {Quasigeodesic languages are not context-free in some non-hyperbolic groups},
  author = {Arya Saranathan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.12520},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 3 figures; comments welcome!

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:09:41.075Z