On computing geodesics in Baumslag-Solitar groups.

DOI10.1142/S0218196711006108zbMATH Open1235.20041arXiv0907.5114MaRDI QIDQ2996841FDOQ2996841

Authors: Volker Diekert, Jürn Laun 

Publication date: 3 May 2011

Published in: International Journal of Algebra and Computation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We introduce the peak normal form of elements of the Baumslag-Solitar groups BS(p,q). This normal form is very close to the length-lexicographical normal form, but more symmetric. Both normal forms are geodesic. This means the normal form of an element $u^{-1}v$ yields the shortest path between $u$ and $v$ in the Cayley graph. For horocyclic elements the peak normal form and the length-lexicographical normal form coincide. The main result of this paper is that we can compute the peak normal form in polynomial time if $p$ divides $q$. As consequence we can compute geodesic lengths in this case. In particular, this gives a partial answer to Question 1 in Elder et al. 2009, arXiv.org:0907.3258. For arbitrary $p$ and $q$ it is possible to compute the peak normal form (length-lexicolgraphical normal form resp.) also for elements in the horocyclic subgroup and, more generally, for elements which we call hills. This approach leads to a linear time reduction of the problem of computing geodesics to the problem of computing geodesics for Britton-reduced words where the $t$-sequence starts with $t^{-1}$ and ends with $t$. To solve the general case in polynomial time for arbitrary $p$ and $q$ remains a challenging open problem.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0907.5114

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zbMATH Keywords

NP-complete problemsdeterministic algorithmsnormal form theoremspolynomial time algorithmsBaumslag-Solitar groupsmetabelian groupsgeodesic lengthsgeodesic problems

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Analysis of algorithms and problem complexity (68Q25) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Geometric group theory (20F65) Word problems, other decision problems, connections with logic and automata (group-theoretic aspects) (20F10) Solvable groups, supersolvable groups (20F16)

Cites Work

• Some two-generator one-relator non-Hopfian groups
• On the entropy of context-free languages

Cited In (7)

• Metric properties of Baumslag-Solitar groups.
• A linear-time algorithm to compute geodesics in solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups.
• A context-free and a 1-counter geodesic language for a Baumslag-Solitar group
• Growth in Baumslag-Solitar groups. II: The Bass-Serre tree
• Limits of Baumslag-Solitar groups and dimension estimates in the space of marked groups.
• Some geodesic problems in groups
• Conjugation curvature in solvable Baumslag–Solitar groups

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