Lower bounds on words separation: are there short identities in transformation semigroups? (Q2401420)

Summary: The words separation problem, originally formulated by \textit{P. Goralčík} and \textit{V. Koubek} [Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 226, 116--122 (1986; Zbl 0594.68049)], is stated as follows. Let \(\mathsf{Sep}(n)\) be the minimum number such that for any two words of length \(\leq n\) there is a deterministic finite automaton with \(\mathsf{Sep}(n)\) states, accepting exactly one of them. The problem is to find the asymptotics of the function \(\mathsf{Sep}\). This problem is inverse to finding the asymptotics of the length of the shortest identity in full transformation semigroups \(T_k\). The known lower bound on \(\mathsf{Sep}\) stems from the unary identity in \(T_k\). We find the first series of identities in \(T_k\) which are shorter than the corresponding unary identity for infinitely many values of \(k\), and thus slightly improve the lower bound on \(\mathsf{Sep}(n)\). Then we present some short positive identities in symmetric groups, improving the lower bound on separating words by permutational automata by a multiplicative constant. Finally, we present the results of computer search for short identities for small \(k\).