English

Solving Equation Systems in $\omega$-categorical Algebras

Logic 2021-05-18 v2 Computational Complexity Rings and Algebras

Abstract

We study the computational complexity of deciding whether a given set of term equalities and inequalities has a solution in an ω\omega-categorical algebra A\mathfrak{A}. There are ω\omega-categorical groups where this problem is undecidable. We show that if A\mathfrak{A} is an ω\omega-categorical semilattice or an abelian group, then the problem is in P or NP-hard. The hard cases are precisely those where Pol(A,)(\mathfrak{A},\neq) has a uniformly continuous minor-preserving map to the clone of projections on a two-element set. The results provide information about algebras A\mathfrak{A} such that Pol(A,)(\mathfrak{A},\neq) does not satisfy this condition, and they are of independent interest in universal algebra. In our proofs we rely on the Barto-Pinsker theorem about the existence of pseudo-Siggers polymorphisms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the pseudo-Siggers identity has been used to prove a complexity dichotomy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1912.09815,
  title  = {Solving Equation Systems in $\omega$-categorical Algebras},
  author = {Manuel Bodirsky and Thomas Quinn-Gregson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.09815},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

28 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:52:25.055Z