On commutator length in free groups

DOI10.4171/GGD/747MaRDI QIDQ6260932zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Laurent Bartholdi, S. O. Ivanov, Danil Fialkovski

Publication date 16 April 2015

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.4171/ggd/747

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Free nonabelian groups (20E05) Commutator calculus (20F12)

Abstract: Let $F$ be a free group. We present for arbitrary $ginmathbbN$ a LogSpace (and thus polynomial time) algorithm that determines whether a given $winF$ is a product of at most $g$ commutators; and more generally an algorithm that determines, given $winF$, the minimal $g$ such that $w$ may be written as a product of $g$ commutators (and returns $infty$ if no such $g$ exists). The algorithm also returns words $x_1,y_1,dots,x_g,y_g$ such that $w=[x_1,y_1]cdots[x_g,y_g]$. The algorithms we present are also efficient in practice. Using them, we produce the first example of a word in the free group whose commutator length decreases under taking a square. This disproves in a very strong sense a conjecture by Bardakov.

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