The Tutte-Grothendieck group of an alphabetic rewriting system (Q1952720)

Summary: The two operations, deletion and contraction of an edge, on multigraphs directly lead to the Tutte polynomial which satisfies a universal problem. As observed by \textit{T. H. Brylawski} [ Algebra Univers. 2, 375--388 (1972; Zbl 0265.13009)] in terms of order relations, these operations may be interpreted as a particular instance of a general theory which involves universal invariants like the Tutte polynomial and a universal group, called the Tutte-Grothendieck group. In this contribution, Brylawski's theory is extended in two ways: first of all, the order relation is replaced by a string rewriting system, and secondly, commutativity by partial commutations (that permits a kind of interpolation between noncommutativity and full commutativity). This allows us to clarify the relations between the semigroup subject to rewriting and the Tutte-Grothendieck group: the latter is actually the Grothendieck group completion of the former, up to the free adjunction of a unit (this was not even mentioned by Brylawski), and normal forms may be seen as universal invariants. Moreover we prove that such universal constructions are also possible in case of a nonconvergent rewriting system, outside the scope of Brylawski's work.