arXiv subjects

Volker Diekert

Publications and source records attributed to Volker Diekert.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quadratic Equations in Graph Products of Groups and the Exponent of Periodicity

In 1977, Makanin established the decidability of equations in free monoids. A key ingredient in his proof is the exponent of periodicity: for a word $w$, it is the largest exponent $e$ such that $w$ contains a nonempty factor of the form $p^e$. Makanin showed the following for a system of equations in free monoids: if the system has a solution with a sufficiently large exponent of periodicity, then it has infinitely many solutions. However, the converse -- whether the existence of infinitely many solutions implies the existence of solutions with arbitrarily large exponent of periodicity -- remains open. In this paper, we investigate the analogous problem for quadratic equations in finitely generated groups. We use normal forms to define the exponent of periodicity. We then identify structural conditions on groups and their normal forms that guarantee that infinite solution sets of quadratic systems have an unbounded exponent of periodicity. We prove that these conditions are preserved under graph products and, in particular, hold for all finitely generated right-angled Artin groups. In addition, we show that they also hold for finitely generated (graph products of) torsion-free nilpotent and hyperbolic groups, and we characterize the Baumslag-Solitar groups satisfying them.

math.GR↗

arXiv2025

Quadratic word equations with regular constraints and the exponent of periodicity

In this article, we study word equations in free semigroups and the conjecture that the existence of infinitely many solutions entails the existence of solutions with arbitrarily large exponent of periodicity. We examine this question in the broader framework of word equations with regular constraints and establish new positive results: the conjecture holds for all quadratic word equations with constraints in finite semigroups from the variety $\mathbf{DLG}$ and its left-right dual $\mathbf{DRG}$, encompassing, in particular, all finite groups, commutative semigroups, and $\mathcal{J}$-trivial semigroups.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2024

Decidability of membership problems for flat rational subsets of $\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Q})$ and singular matrices

We consider membership problems for rational subsets of the semigroup of $2\times 2$ matrices over $\mathbb{Q}$. For a semigroup $M$, the rational subsets $\mathrm{Rat}(M)$ are defined as the sets accepted by NFAs whose transitions are labeled by elements of $M$. In general, it is undecidable on inputs $m\in M$ and $R\in \mathrm{Rat}(M)$ whether $m$ belongs to $R$. Therefore, we restrict our attention to the family $\mathrm{FRat}(M,S)$ of flat rational subsets of $M$ over $S$, where $S$ is a subsemigroup of $M$. It consists of finite unions of the form $g_0L_1g_1 \cdots L_tg_t$, where $L_i\in \mathrm{Rat}(S)$ and $g_i\in M$. Assuming that the membership for $\mathrm{Rat}(S)$ is decidable, we prove various results when the membership for $\mathrm{FRat}(M,S)$ is decidable. If $H$ is a subgroup of a group $G$, then we provide a rather general condition when $\mathrm{FRat}(G,H)$ is an (effective) relative Boolean algebra. This leads to one of our main results that the emptiness problem for Boolean combinations of sets in $\mathrm{FRat}(\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Q}),\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Z}))$ is decidable. It is possible that this result cannot be pushed any further as indicated by the following dichotomy: if $G$ is a finitely generated group such that $\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Z}) < G < \mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Q})$, then either $G\cong \mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\times \mathbb{Z}^k$ or $G$ contains an extension of the Baumslag-Solitar group $\mathrm{BS}(1,q)$ of infinite index. It is open whether the membership for rational subsets is decidable in the latter case. For singular matrices, we will show that the membership problem for $\mathrm{FRat}(\mathbb{Q}^{2\times 2},S)$ is decidable in doubly exponential time, where $S$ is the monoid generated by $\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\cup \{r\in \mathbb{Q}\,\mid\,r>1\} \cup \{0,\left(\begin{smallmatrix}1 & 0\\ 0 & 0\end{smallmatrix}\right)\}$.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2023

A Survey on the Local Divisor Technique

Local divisors allow a powerful induction scheme on the size of a monoid. We survey this technique by giving several examples of this proof method. These applications include linear temporal logic, rational expressions with Kleene stars restricted to prefix codes with bounded synchronization delay, Church-Rosser congruential languages, and Simon's Factorization Forest Theorem. We also introduce the notion of localizable language class as a new abstract concept which unifies some of the proofs for the results above. The current arXiv-version includes some additional material about codes of bounded synchronization delay as well as some updates concerning related literature.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2022

Reachability Games and Parity Games

Parity games are positionally determined. This is a fundamental and classical result. In 2010, Calude et al. showed a breakthrough result for finite parity games: the winning regions and their positional winning strategies can be computed in quasi-polynomial time. In the present paper we give a self-contained and detailed proofs for both results. The results in this paper are not meant to be original. The positional determinacy result is shown for possibly infinite parity games using the ideas of Zielonka which he published in 1998. In order to show quasi-polynomial time, we follow Lehtinen's register games, which she introduced in 2018. Although the time complexity of Lehtinen's algorithm is not optimal, register games are conceptually simple and interesting in their own right. Various of our proofs are either new or simplifications of the original proofs. The topics in this paper include the definition and the computation of optimal attractors for reachability games, too.

cs.GT↗

arXiv2022

Context-Free Groups and Bass-Serre Theory

The word problem of a finitely generated group is the formal language of words over the generators which are equal to the identity in the group. If this language happens to be context-free, then the group is called context-free. Finitely generated virtually free groups are context-free. In a seminal paper Muller and Schupp showed the converse: A context-free group is virtually free. Over the past decades a wide range of other characterizations of context-free groups have been found. The present notes survey most of these characterizations. Our aim is to show how the different characterizations of context-free groups are interconnected. Moreover, we present a self-contained access to the Muller-Schupp theorem without using Stallings' structure theorem or a separate accessibility result. We also give an introduction to some classical results linking groups with formal language theory.

math.GR↗

arXiv2022

Solutions to twisted word equations and equations in virtually free groups

It is well known that the problem solving equations in virtually free groups can be reduced to the problem of solving twisted word equations with regular constraints over free monoids with involution. In this paper we prove that the set of all solutions of a twisted word equation is an EDT0L language whose specification can be computed in $\mathsf{PSPACE}$. Within the same complexity bound we can decide whether the solution set is empty, finite, or infinite. In the second part of the paper we apply the results for twisted equations to obtain in $\mathsf{PSPACE}$ an EDT0L description of the solution set of equations with rational constraints for finitely generated virtually free groups in standard normal forms with respect to a natural set of generators. If the rational constraints are given by a homomorphism into a fixed (or "small enough") finite monoid, then our algorithms can be implemented in $\mathsf{NSPACE}(n^2\log n)$, that is, in quasi-quadratic nondeterministic space. Our results generalize the work by Lohrey and Sénizergues (ICALP 2006) and Dahmani and Guirardel (J. of Topology 2010) with respect to both complexity and expressive power. Neither paper gave any concrete complexity bound and the results in these papers are stated for subsets of solutions only, whereas our results concern all solutions.

math.GR↗

arXiv2022

Regular matching problems for infinite trees

We study the matching problem of regular tree languages, that is, "$\exists σ:σ(L)\subseteq R$?" where $L,R$ are regular tree languages over the union of finite ranked alphabets $Σ$ and $\mathcal{X}$ where $\mathcal{X}$ is an alphabet of variables and $σ$ is a substitution such that $σ(x)$ is a set of trees in $T(Σ\cup H)\setminus H$ for all $x\in \mathcal{X}$. Here, $H$ denotes a set of "holes" which are used to define a "sorted" concatenation of trees. Conway studied this problem in the special case for languages of finite words in his classical textbook "Regular algebra and finite machines" published in 1971. He showed that if $L$ and $R$ are regular, then the problem "$\exists σ\forall x\in \mathcal{X}: σ(x)\neq \emptyset\wedge σ(L)\subseteq R$?" is decidable. Moreover, there are only finitely many maximal solutions, the maximal solutions are regular substitutions, and they are effectively computable. We extend Conway's results when $L,R$ are regular languages of finite and infinite trees, and language substitution is applied inside-out, in the sense of Engelfriet and Schmidt (1977/78). More precisely, we show that if $L\subseteq T(Σ\cup\mathcal{X})$ and $R\subseteq T(Σ)$ are regular tree languages over finite or infinite trees, then the problem "$\exists σ\forall x\in \mathcal{X}: σ(x)\neq \emptyset\wedge σ_{\mathrm{io}}(L)\subseteq R$?" is decidable. Here, the subscript "$\mathrm{io}$" in $σ_{\mathrm{io}}(L)$ refers to "inside-out". Moreover, there are only finitely many maximal solutions $σ$, the maximal solutions are regular substitutions and effectively computable. The corresponding question for the outside-in extension $σ_{\mathrm{oi}}$ remains open, even in the restricted setting of finite trees.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2021

Properties of Graphs Specified by a Regular Language

Traditionally, graph algorithms get a single graph as input, and then they should decide if this graph satisfies a certain property $Φ$. What happens if this question is modified in a way that we get a possibly infinite family of graphs as an input, and the question is if there is a graph satisfying $Φ$ in the family? We approach this question by using formal languages for specifying families of graphs, in particular by regular sets of words. We show that certain graph properties can be decided by studying the syntactic monoid of the specification language $L$ if a certain torsion condition is satisfied. This condition holds trivially if $L$ is regular. More specifically, we use a natural binary encoding of finite graphs over a binary alphabet $Σ$, and we define a regular set $\mathbb{G}\subseteq Σ^*$ such that every nonempty word $w\in \mathbb{G}$ defines a finite and nonempty graph. Also, graph properties can then be syntactically defined as languages over $Σ$. Then, we ask whether the automaton $\mathcal{A}$ specifies some graph satisfying a certain property~$Φ$. Our structural results show that we can answer this question for all "typical" graph properties. In order to show our results, we split $L$ into a finite union of subsets and every subset of this union defines in a natural way a single finite graph $F$ where some edges and vertices are marked. The marked graph in turn defines an infinite graph $F^\infty$ and therefore the family of finite subgraphs of $F^\infty$ where $F$ appears as an induced subgraph. This yields a geometric description of all graphs specified by $L$ based on splitting $L$ into finitely many pieces; then using the notion of graph retraction, we obtain an easily understandable description of the graphs in each piece.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

Church-Rosser Systems, Codes with Bounded Synchronization Delay and Local Rees Extensions

What is the common link, if there is any, between Church-Rosser systems, prefix codes with bounded synchronization delay, and local Rees extensions? The first obvious answer is that each of these notions relates to topics of interest for WORDS: Church-Rosser systems are certain rewriting systems over words, codes are given by sets of words which form a basis of a free submonoid in the free monoid of all words (over a given alphabet) and local Rees extensions provide structural insight into regular languages over words. So, it seems to be a legitimate title for an extended abstract presented at the conference WORDS 2017. However, this work is more ambitious, it outlines some less obvious but much more interesting link between these topics. This link is based on a structure theory of finite monoids with varieties of groups and the concept of local divisors playing a prominent role. Parts of this work appeared in a similar form in conference proceedings where proofs and further material can be found.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2016

Solution sets for equations over free groups are EDT0L languages

We show that, given an equation over a finitely generated free group, the set of all solutions in reduced words forms an effectively constructible EDT0L language. In particular, the set of all solutions in reduced words is an indexed language in the sense of Aho. The language characterization we give, as well as further questions about the existence or finiteness of solutions, follow from our explicit construction of a finite directed graph which encodes all the solutions. Our result incorporates the recently invented recompression technique of Jeż, and a new way to integrate solutions of linear Diophantine equations into the process. As a byproduct of our techniques, we improve the complexity from quadratic nondeterministic space in previous works to $\mathsf{NSPACE}(n\log n)$ here.

math.GR↗

arXiv2016

Amenability of Schreier graphs and strongly generic algorithms for the conjugacy problem

In various occasions the conjugacy problem in finitely generated amalgamated products and HNN extensions can be decided efficiently for elements which cannot be conjugated into the base groups. This observation asks for a bound on how many such elements there are. Such bounds can be derived using the theory of amenable graphs: In this work we examine Schreier graphs of amalgamated products and HNN extensions. For an amalgamated product $G = H *_A K $ with $[H:A] \geq [K:A] \geq 2$, the Schreier graph with respect to $H$ or $K$ turns out to be non-amenable if and only if $[H:A] \geq 3$. Moreover, for an HNN extension of the form $G = $, we show that the Schreier graph of $G$ with respect to the subgroup $H$ is non-amenable if and only if $A \neq H \neq ϕ(A)$. As application of these characterizations we show that under certain conditions the conjugacy problem in fundamental groups of finite graphs of groups with free abelian vertex groups can be solved in polynomial time on a strongly generic set. Furthermore, the conjugacy problem in groups with more than one end can be solved with a strongly generic algorithm which has essentially the same time complexity as the word problem. These are rather striking results as the word problem might be easy, but the conjugacy problem might be even undecidable. Finally, our results yield another proof that the set where the conjugacy problem of the Baumslag group is decidable in polynomial time is also strongly generic.

math.GR↗

arXiv2016

Solutions of Word Equations over Partially Commutative Structures

Let $M(A,I)$ be a free partially commutative monoid with involution and $G(A,I)$ its quotient group (for example, a right-angled Artin or Coxeter group). We show that for any system of word equations over $M(A,I)$ with recognizable constraints, the solution set - in $M(A,I)$ or in $G(A,I)$ - is an EDT0L language. It is given by an NFA $\mathcal{A}$ recognizing endomorphisms over some extended monoid. Furthermore, if the input size is $n$, then the automaton $\mathcal{A}$ can be constructed effectively by an NSPACE$(n\log n)$-transducer. As a consequence, both Satisfiability (whether the system admits a solution) and Finiteness (whether the solution set is infinite) are decidable in NSPACE$(n \log n)$. For a natural subclass of constraints, we conjecture that these problems are NP-complete.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2016

Characterizing classes of regular languages using prefix codes of bounded synchronization delay

In this paper we continue a classical work of Schützenberger on codes with bounded synchronization delay. He was interested to characterize those regular languages where the groups in the syntactic monoid belong to a variety $H$. He allowed operations on the language side which are union, intersection, concatenation and modified Kleene-star involving a mapping of a prefix code of bounded synchronization delay to a group $G\in H$, but no complementation. In our notation this leads to the language classes $SD_G(A^\infty)$ and $SD_H(A^\infty$). Our main result shows that $SD_H(A^\infty)$ always corresponds to the languages having syntactic monoids where all subgroups are in $H$. Schützenberger showed this for a variety $H$ if $H$ contains Abelian groups, only. Our method shows the general result for all $H$ directly on finite and infinite words. Furthermore, we introduce the notion of local Rees products which refers to a simple type of classical Rees extensions. We give a decomposition of a monoid in terms of its groups and local Rees products. This gives a somewhat similar, but simpler decomposition than in Rhodes' synthesis theorem. Moreover, we need a singly exponential number of operations, only. Finally, our decomposition yields an answer to a question in a recent paper of Almeida and Klíma about varieties that are closed under Rees products.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2015

Equations over free inverse monoids with idempotent variables

We introduce the notion of idempotent variables for studying equations in inverse monoids. It is proved that it is decidable in singly exponential time (DEXPTIME) whether a system of equations in idempotent variables over a free inverse monoid has a solution. The result is proved by a direct reduction to solve language equations with one-sided concatenation and a known complexity result by Baader and Narendran: Unification of concept terms in description logics, 2001. We also show that the problem becomes DEXPTIME hard , as soon as the quotient group of the free inverse monoid has rank at least two. Decidability for systems of typed equations over a free inverse monoid with one irreducible variable and at least one unbalanced equation is proved with the same complexity for the upper bound. Our results improve known complexity bounds by Deis, Meakin, and Senizergues: Equations in free inverse monoids, 2007. Our results also apply to larger families of equations where no decidability has been previously known.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2015

Solution sets for equations over free groups are EDT0L languages -- ICALP 2015 version

We show that, given a word equation over a finitely generated free group, the set of all solutions in reduced words forms an EDT0L language. In particular, it is an indexed language in the sense of Aho. The question of whether a description of solution sets in reduced words as an indexed language is possible has been been open for some years, apparently without much hope that a positive answer could hold. Nevertheless, our answer goes far beyond: they are EDT0L, which is a proper subclass of indexed languages. We can additionally handle the existential theory of equations with rational constraints in free products $\star_{1 \leq i \leq s}F_i$, where each $F_i$ is either a free or finite group, or a free monoid with involution. In all cases the result is the same: the set of all solutions in reduced words is EDT0L. This was known only for quadratic word equations by Ferté, Marin and Sénizergues (ToCS 2014), which is a very restricted case. Our general result became possible due to the recent recompression technique of Jeż. In this paper we use a new method to integrate solutions of linear Diophantine equations into the process and obtain more general results than in the related paper (arXiv 1405.5133). For example, we improve the complexity from quadratic nondeterministic space in (arXiv 1405.5133) to quasi-linear nondeterministic space here. This implies an improved complexity for deciding the existential theory of non-abelian free groups: NSPACE($n\log n$). The conjectured complexity is NP, however, we believe that our results are optimal with respect to space complexity, independent of the conjectured NP.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2015

More Than 1700 Years of Word Equations

Geometry and Diophantine equations have been ever-present in mathematics. Diophantus of Alexandria was born in the 3rd century (as far as we know), but a systematic mathematical study of word equations began only in the 20th century. So, the title of the present article does not seem to be justified at all. However, a linear Diophantine equation can be viewed as a special case of a system of word equations over a unary alphabet, and, more importantly, a word equation can be viewed as a special case of a Diophantine equation. Hence, the problem WordEquations: "Is a given word equation solvable?" is intimately related to Hilbert's 10th problem on the solvability of Diophantine equations. This became clear to the Russian school of mathematics at the latest in the mid 1960s, after which a systematic study of that relation began. Here, we review some recent developments which led to an amazingly simple decision procedure for WordEquations, and to the description of the set of all solutions as an EDT0L language.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2015

A Note on Monitors and Büchi automata

When a property needs to be checked against an unknown or very complex system, classical exploration techniques like model-checking are not applicable anymore. Sometimes a~monitor can be used, that checks a given property on the underlying system at runtime. A monitor for a property $L$ is a deterministic finite automaton $M_L$ that after each finite execution tells whether (1) every possible extension of the execution is in $L$, or (2) every possible extension is in the complement of $L$, or neither (1) nor (2) holds. Moreover, $L$ being monitorable means that it is always possible that in some future the monitor reaches (1) or (2). Classical examples for monitorable properties are safety and cosafety properties. On the other hand, deterministic liveness properties like "infinitely many $a$'s" are not monitorable. We discuss various monitor constructions with a focus on deterministic omega-regular languages. We locate a proper subclass of of deterministic omega-regular languages but also strictly large than the subclass of languages which are deterministic and codeterministic, and for this subclass there exists a canonical monitor which also accepts the language itself. We also address the problem to decide monitorability in comparison with deciding liveness. The state of the art is as follows. Given a Büchi automaton, it is PSPACE-complete to decide liveness or monitorability. Given an LTL formula, deciding liveness becomes EXPSPACE-complete, but the complexity to decide monitorability remains open.

cs.FL↗