The word problem of the Brin-Higman-Thompson groups

Abstract

We show that the word problem of the Brin-Higman-Thompson group $n G_{k,1}$ is {\sf coNP}-complete for all $n \ge 2$ and all $k \ge 2$. For this we prove that $n G_{k,1}$ is finitely generated, and that $n G_{k,1}$ contains a subgroup of $2 G_{2,1}$ that can represent bijective circuits. We also show that for all $n \ge 1$ and $k \ge 2$: \ If $\,K = 1 + (k-1)\,N\,$ for some $N \ge 1$, then $n G_{K,1} \le n G_{k,1}$. In particular, $n G_{K,1} \le n G_{2,1}$ for all $K \ge 2$.