The use of Knuth-Bendix methods to solve the word problem in automatic groups (Q1192222)

The authors consider the notion of automatic group which is a reinterpretation of results of \textit{J. W. Cannon} [Geom. Dedicata 16, 123-148 (1984; Zbl 0606.57003)]. The class \(Au\) of such groups includes many of the examples that arise naturally in geometry and topology. All groups from \(Au\) are finitely presented and have solvable word problem. \(Au\) is closed under direct and free products, free products with finite amalgamated subgroups, HNN extensions with finite conjugated subgroups, subgroups and supergroups of finite index, and quotient groups by normal subgroups of finite order. The authors describe the development of practical methods for the solution of the word problem for automatic groups based on the reduction of words to a normal form.