arXiv subjects

Ville Salo

Publications and source records attributed to Ville Salo.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

On von Neumann regularity of cellular automata

We show that a cellular automaton on a one-dimensional two-sided mixing subshift of finite type is a von Neumann regular element in the semigroup of cellular automata if and only if it is split epic onto its image in the category of sofic shifts and block maps. It follows from previous joint work of the author and Törmä that von Neumann regularity is a decidable condition, and we decide it for all elementary CA, obtaining the optimal radii for weak generalized inverses. Two sufficient conditions for non-regularity are having a proper sofic image or having a point in the image with no preimage of the same period. We show that the non-regular ECA 9 and 28 cannot be proven non-regular using these methods. We also show that a random cellular automaton is non-regular with high probability.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2022

Triangle solitaire

The solitaire of independence is a groupoid action resembling the classical 15-puzzle, which gives information about independent sets of coordinates in a totally extremally permutive subshift. We study the solitaire with the triangle shape, which corresponds to the spacetime diagrams of bipermutive cellular automata with radius 1/2. We give a polynomial time algorithm that puts any finite subset of the plane in normal form using solitaire moves, and show that the solitaire orbit of a line of consecutive ones -- the line orbit -- is completely characterised by the notion of a fill matrix. We show that the diameter of the line orbit under solitaire moves is cubic.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

What can oracles teach us about the ultimate fate of life?

We settle two long-standing open problems about Conway's Life, a two-dimensional cellular automaton. We solve the Generalized grandfather problem: for all $n \geq 0$, there exists a configuration that has an $n$th predecessor but not an $(n+1)$st one. We also solve (one interpretation of) the Unique father problem: there exists a finite stable configuration that contains a finite subpattern that has no predecessor patterns except itself. In particular this gives the first example of an unsynthetizable still life. The new key concept is that of a spatiotemporally periodic configuration (agar) which has a unique chain of preimages; we show that this property is semidecidable, and find examples of such agars using a SAT solver. Our results about the topological dynamics of Game of Life are as follows: it never reaches its limit set; its dynamics on its limit set is chain-wandering, in particular it is not topologically transitive and does not have dense periodic points; and the spatial dynamics of its limit set is non-sofic, and does not admit a sublinear gluing radius in the cardinal directions (in particular it is not block-gluing). Our computability results are that Game of Life's reachability problem, as well as the language of its limit set, are PSPACE-hard.

math.DS↗

arXiv2022

Cellular Automata and Bootstrap Percolation

We study qualitative properties of two-dimensional freezing cellular automata with a binary state set initialized on a random configuration. If the automaton is also monotone, the setting is equivalent to bootstrap percolation. We explore the extent to which monotonicity constrains the possible asymptotic dynamics by proving two results that do not hold in the subclass of monotone automata. First, it is undecidable whether the automaton almost surely fills the space when initialized on a Bernoulli random configuration with density $p$, for some/all $0 < p < 1$. Second, there exists an automaton whose space-filling property depends on $p$ in a non-monotone way.

math.PR↗

arXiv2022

Conjugacy of reversible cellular automata and one-head machines

We show that conjugacy of reversible cellular automata is undecidable, whether the conjugacy is to be performed by another reversible cellular automaton or by a general homeomorphism. This gives rise to a new family of finitely-generated groups with undecidable conjugacy problems, whose descriptions arguably do not involve any type of computation. For many automorphism groups of subshifts, as well as the group of asynchronous transducers and the homeomorphism group of the Cantor set, our result implies the existence of two elements such that every finitely-generated subgroup containing both has undecidable conjugacy problem. We say that conjugacy in these groups is eventually locally undecidable. We also prove that the Brin-Thompson group $2V$ and groups of reversible Turing machines have undecidable conjugacy problems, and show that the word problems of the automorphism group and the topological full group of every full shift are eventually locally co-NP-complete.

math.GR↗

arXiv2022

Four heads are better than three

We construct recursively-presented finitely-generated torsion groups which have bounded torsion and whose word problem is conjunctive equivalent (in particular positive and Turing equivalent) to a given recursively enumerable set. These groups can be interpreted as groups of finite state machines or as subgroups of topological full groups, on effective subshifts over other torsion groups. We define a recursion-theoretic property of a set of natural numbers, called impredictability. It roughly states that a Turing machine can enumerate numbers such that every Turing machine occasionally incorrectly guesses (by either halting or not) whether they are in the set, even given an oracle for a prefix of the set. We prove that impredictable recursively enumerable sets exist. Combining these constructions and slightly adapting a result of [Salo and Törmä, 2017], we obtain that four-headed group-walking finite-state automata can define strictly more subshifts than three-headed automata on a group containing a copy of the integers, confirming a conjecture of [Salo and Törmä, 2017]. These are the first examples of groups where four heads are better than three, and they show the maximal height of a finite head hierarchy is indeed four.

math.DS↗

arXiv2022

Automatic winning shifts

To each one-dimensional subshift $X$, we may associate a winning shift $W(X)$ which arises from a combinatorial game played on the language of $X$. Previously it has been studied what properties of $X$ does $W(X)$ inherit. For example, $X$ and $W(X)$ have the same factor complexity and if $X$ is a sofic subshift, then $W(X)$ is also sofic. In this paper, we develop a notion of automaticity for $W(X)$, that is, we propose what it means that a vector representation of $W(X)$ is accepted by a finite automaton. Let $S$ be an abstract numeration system such that addition with respect to $S$ is a rational relation. Let $X$ be a subshift generated by an $S$-automatic word. We prove that as long as there is a bound on the number of nonzero symbols in configurations of $W(X)$ (which follows from $X$ having sublinear factor complexity), then $W(X)$ is accepted by a finite automaton, which can be effectively constructed from the description of $X$. We provide an explicit automaton when $X$ is generated by certain automatic words such as the Thue-Morse word.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2021

Simulations and the Lamplighter group

We introduce a notion of "simulation" for labelled graphs, in which edges of the simulated graph are realized by regular expressions in the simulating graph, and prove that the tiling problem (aka "domino problem") for the simulating graph is at least as difficult as that for the simulated graph. We apply this to the Cayley graph of the "lamplighter group" $L=\mathbb Z/2\wr\mathbb Z$, and more generally to "Diestel-Leader graphs". We prove that these graphs simulate the plane, and thus deduce that the seeded tiling problem is unsolvable on the group $L$. We note that $L$ does not contain any plane in its Cayley graph, so our undecidability criterion by simulation covers cases not covered by Jeandel's criterion based on translation-like action of a product of finitely generated infinite groups. Our approach to tiling problems is strongly based on categorical constructions in graph theory.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Trees in positive entropy subshifts

I give a simple proof for the fact that positive entropy subshifts contain infinite binary trees where branching happens synchronously in each branch, and that the branching times form a set with positive lower asymptotic density.

math.DS↗

arXiv2021

Sofically presented dynamical systems

Systems obtained by quotienting a subshift of finite type (SFT) by another SFT are called finitely presented in the literature. Analogously, if a sofic shift is quotiented by a sofic equivalence relation, we call the resulting system sofically presented. Generalizing an observation of Fried, for all discrete countable monoids M, we show that M-subshift/SFT systems are precisely the expansive dynamical M-systems, where S_1/S_2 denotes the class of systems obtained by quotienting subshifts in S_1 by (relative) subshifts in S_2. We show that for all finitely generated infinite monoids M, M-SFT \subsetneq M-sofic \subsetneq M-SFT/SFT = M-sofic/SFT \subsetneq M-SFT/sofic = M-sofic/sofic, and that Mañé's theorem about the dimension of expansive systems characterizes the virtually cyclic groups. In the case of one-dimensional actions, Mañe's theorem generalizes to sofically presented systems, which also have finite topological dimension. The basis of this is the construction of an explicit metric for a sofically presented system. We show that any finite connected simplicial complex is a connected component of a finitely presented system, and prove that conjugacy of one-dimensional sofically presented dynamical systems is undecidable. A key idea is the introduction of so-called automatic spaces. We also study the automorphism groups and periodic points of sofically presented systems. We also perform two case studies. First, in the context of $β$-shifts, we define the $β$-kernel -- the least subshift relation that identifies $1$ with its orbit. We give a classification of the $β$-shift/$β$-kernel pair as a function of $β$. Second, we revisit the classical study of toral automorphisms in our framework, and in particular for the classical "golden mean" toral automorphism we explicitly compute the kernel of the standard presentation.

math.DS↗

arXiv2021

Thompson's $V$ in MCG of mixing SFT by PW-linear homeos

In a recent paper, we showed that groups admitting "veelike actions" on a finite language embed in mapping class groups of certain two-sided subshifts. In this note, we illustrate this theorem for the embedding of Thompson's $V$ by exhibiting the piecewise linear local rules for the embedding. These turn out to split the embedding into the mapping class group, showing that $V$ even embeds in the mapping class group by homeomorphisms.

math.GR↗

arXiv2021

Veelike actions and the MCG of a mixing SFT

We embed Thompson's group $V$ in the mapping class group of a mixing subshift of finite type. Question~6.3 in [Boyle-Chuysurichay, 17] asks whether these mapping class groups are sofic. Our result suggests that this question is difficult to solve at present (at least for some mixing SFTs), since a resolution of it in either direction would solve an open problem in geometric group theory. More generally, we define the notion of a ``veelike action'', and prove that whenever a group acts veelike on a language, it embeds in the mapping class group of some subshift. We show that Thompson's $V$ acts veelike on a locally testable language, and thus it embeds in the mapping class group of a mixing SFT. A two-sided variant of the argument works for the Brin-Thompson group $2V$.

math.GR↗

arXiv2021

Graph and wreath products in topological full groups of full shifts

We prove that the topological full group $[[X]]$ of a two-sided full shift $X = Σ^{\mathbb{Z}}$ contains every right-angled Artin group (also called a graph group). More generally, we show that the family of subgroups with "linear look-ahead" is closed under graph products. We show that the lamplighter group $\mathbb{Z}_2 \wr \mathbb{Z}$ embeds in $[[X]]$, and conjecture that it does not embed in $[[X]]$ with linear look-ahead. Generalizing the lamplighter group, we show that whenever $G$ acts with "unique moves" (or at least "move-$A$ithfully"), we have $A \wr G \leq [[X]]$ for finite abelian groups $A$. We show that free products of finite and cyclic groups act with unique moves. We show that $\mathbb{Z}^2$ does not admit move-$A$ithful actions, and conjecture that $\mathbb{Z}_2 \wr \mathbb{Z}^2$ does not embed in $[[X]]$ at all. We show that topological full groups of all infinite nonwandering sofic shifts have the same subgroups, and that this set of groups is closed under commensurability. The group $[[X]]$ embeds in the higher-dimensional Thompson group $2$V, so it follows that $2$V contains all RAAGs, refuting a conjecture of Belk, Bleak and Matucci.

math.GR↗

arXiv2020

Entropy pair realization

We show that the CPE class $α$ of Barbieri and García-Ramos contains a one-dimensional subshift for all countable ordinals $α$, i.e.\ the process of alternating topological and transitive closure on the entropy pairs relation of a subshift can end on an arbitrary ordinal. This is the composition of three constructions: We first realize every ordinal as the length of an abstract "close-up" process on a countable compact space. Next, we realize any abstract process on a compact zero-dimensional metrizable space as the process started from a shift-invariant relation on a subshift, the crucial construction being the implementation of every compact metrizable zero-dimensional space as an open invariant quotient of a subshift. Finally we realize any shift-invariant relation $E$ on a subshift $X$ as the entropy pair relation of a supershift $Y \supset X$, and under strong technical assumptions we can make the CPE process on $Y$ end on the same ordinal as the close-up process of~$E$.

math.DS↗

arXiv2020

Examples of Non-Busemann Horoballs

In the f.g. setting, we construct horoballs which are "not centered around a geodesic" for generalized Heisenberg groups and all wreath products with an infinite acting group. That is, we find are limits of balls -- called horoballs -- which are not increasing unions of balls around points on a geodesic -- called Busemann horoballs. In the case of wreath products this follows from the stronger fact that there exist disconnected horoballs; on the lamplighter group we exhibit limits of Busemann horoballs which are not even coarsely connected. In the case of generalized Heisenberg groups, we use a symmetry argument instead; in fact for the $3$-dimensional Heisenberg group, at least under a particular generating set, we show that all horoballs are connected. This note was written somewhat in isolation from the literature, in response to a recent preprint of Epperlein and Meyerovitch asking for examples of non-Busemann horoballs. It turns out that most of the results mentioned above are known: The results about connectedness follow from known results about almost convexity. The non-coarsely connected horoballs in the lamplighter group, and connected non-Busemann horoballs in the Heisenberg group, may be new statements, but here also we point out some strongly related literature.

math.GR↗

arXiv2020

Cutting Corners

We define and study a class of subshifts of finite type (SFTs) defined by a family of allowed patterns of the same shape where, for any contents of the shape minus a corner, the number of ways to fill in the corner is the same. The main results are that for such an SFT, a locally legal pattern of convex shape is globally legal, and there is a measure that samples uniformly on all convex sets. Under suitable computability assumptions, this measure can be sampled, and legal configurations counted and enumerated, effectively and efficiently. We show by example that these subshifts need not admit a group (more generally unital magma or quasigroup) structure by shift-commuting continuous operations. Our approach to convexity is axiomatic, and only requires an abstract convex geometry that is "midpointed with respect to the shape". We construct such convex geometries on several groups, in particular all strongly polycyclic groups and free groups. We also show some other methods for sampling finite patterns, one based on orderings and one based on contructing new "independent sets" from old. We also show a link to conjectures of Gottshalk and Kaplansky.

math.DS↗

arXiv2020

A Physically Universal Turing Machine

We construct a two-dimensional Turing machine that is physically universal in both the moving tape and moving head model. In particular, it is mixing of all finite orders in both models. We also provide a variant that is physically universal in the moving tape model, but not in the moving head model.

math.DS↗

arXiv2020

Universal CA groups with few generators

There exist f.g.-universal cellular automata groups which are quotients of $\mathbb{Z} * \mathbb{Z}_2$ or $\mathbb{Z}_2 * \mathbb{Z}_2 * \mathbb{Z}_2$, as previously conjectured by the author.

math.GR↗