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It is shown that membership in rational subsets of wreath products H ≀ V with H a finite group and V a virtually free group is decidable. On the other hand, it is shown that there exists a fixed finitely generated submonoid in the wreath product Z ≀ Z with an undecidable membership problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we show that membership in finitely generated submonoids is undecidable for the free metabelian group of rank 2 and for the wreath product ℤ ≀(ℤ×ℤ). We also show that subsemimodule membership is undecidable for finite rank free (ℤ×ℤ)-modules. The proof involves an encoding of Turing machines via tilings. We also show that rational subset membership is undecidable for two-dimensional lamplighter groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we show that the membership problems for finitely generated submonoids and for rational subsets are recursively equivalent for groups with two or more ends. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Free partially commutative inverse monoids are investigated. As in the case of free partially commutative monoids or groups ( trace monoids or graph groups), free partially commutative inverse monoids are defined as quotients of free inverse monoids modulo a partially defined commutation relation on the generators. A quasi linear time algorithm for the word problem is presented. More precisely, we give an $\mathcal {O}(n\log(n))$ algorithm for a RAM. $\mathsf {NP}$ -completeness of the submonoid membership problem (also known as the generalized word problem) and the membership problem for rational sets is shown. Moreover, free partially commutative inverse monoids modulo a finite idempotent presentation are studied. It turns out that the word problem is decidable if and only if the complement of the partial commutation relation is transitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For monoids that satisfy a weak cancellation condition, it is shown that the decidability of the existential theory of word equations is preserved under graph products. Furthermore, it is shown that the positive theory of a graph product of groups can be reduced to the positive theories of those factors, which commute with all other factors, and the existential theories of the remaining factors. Both results also include suitable constraints for the variables. Larger classes of constraints lead in many cases to undecidability results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several transfer results for rational subsets and finitely generated subgroups of HNN-extensions G = 〈 H,t; t-1 at = φ(a) (a ∈ A) 〉 and amalgamated free products G = H *A J such that the associated subgroup A is finite. These transfer results allow to transfer decidability properties or structural properties from the subgroup H (resp. the subgroups H and J) to the group G. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let G be a finitely generated virtually-free group. We consider the Birget–Rhodes expansion of G, which yields an inverse monoid and which is denoted by IM(G) in the following. We show that for a finite idempotent presentation P, the word problem of a quotient monoid IM(G)/P can be solved in linear time on a RAM. The uniform word problem, where G and the presentation P are also part of the input, is EXPTIME-complete. With IM(G)/P we associate a relational structure, which contains for every rational subset L of IM(G)/P a binary relation, consisting of all pairs (x,y) such that y can be obtained from x by right multiplication with an element from L. We prove that the first-order theory of this structure is decidable. This result implies that the emptiness problem for Boolean combinations of rational subsets of IM(G)/P is decidable, which, in turn implies the decidability of the submonoid membership problem of IM(G)/P. These results were known previously for free groups, only. Moreover, we provide a new algorithmic approach for these problems, which seems to be of independent interest even for free groups. We also show that one cannot expect decidability results in much larger frameworks than virtually-free groups because the subgroup membership problem of a subgroup H in an arbitrary group G can be reduced to a word problem of some IM(G)/P, where P depends only on H. A consequence is that there is a hyperbolic group G and a finite idempotent presentation P such that the word problem is undecidable for some finitely generated submonoid of IM(G)/P. In particular, the word problem of IM(G)/P is undecidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates the word problem for inverse monoids generated by a set Γ subject to relations of the form e = f, where e and f are both idempotents in the free inverse monoid generated by Γ. It is shown that for every fixed monoid of this form the word problem can be solved both in linear time on a RAM as well as in deterministic logarithmic space, which solves an open problem of Margolis and Meakin. For the uniform word problem, where the presentation is part of the input, EXPTIME-completeness is shown. For the Cayley-graphs of these monoids, it is shown that the first-order theory with regular path predicates is decidable. Regular path predicates allow to state that there is a path from a node x to a node y that is labeled with a word from some regular language. As a corollary, the decidability of the generalized word problem is deduced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cayley-graphs of monoids are investigated under a logical point of view. It is shown that the class of monoids, for which the Cayley-graph has a decidable monadic second-order theory, is closed under free products. This result is derived from a result of Walukiewicz, stating that the decidability of monadic second-order theories is preserved under tree-like unfoldings. Concerning first-order logic, it is shown that the class of monoids, for which the Cayley-graph has a decidable first-order theory, is closed under arbitrary graph products, which generalize both, free and direct products. For the proof of this result, tree-like unfoldings are generalized to so-called factorized unfoldings. It is shown that the decidability of the first-order theory of a structure is preserved by factorized unfoldings. Several additional results concerning factorized unfoldings are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a compressed form of the word problem for finitely presented monoids, where the input consists of two compressed representations of words over the generators of a monoid M, and we ask whether these two words represent the same monoid element of M. Words are compressed using straight-line programs, i.e., context-free grammars that generate exactly one word. For several classes of finitely presented monoids we obtain completeness results for complexity classes in the range from P to EXPSPACE. As a by-product of our results on compressed word problems we obtain a fixed deterministic context-free language with a PSPACE-complete compressed membership problem. The existence of such a language was open so far. Finally, we will investigate the complexity of the compressed membership problem for various circuit complexity classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that the first-order theory of the one-step rewriting relation associated with a trace rewriting system is decidable but in general not elementary. This extends known results on semi-Thue systems but our proofs use new methods; these new methods yield the decidability of local properties expressed in first-order logic augmented by modulo-counting quantifiers. Using the main decidability result, we define several subclasses of trace rewriting systems for which the confluence problem is decidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that the existential theory of equations with normalized rational constraints in a fixed graph product of finite monoids, free monoids, and free groups is PSPACE-complete. Under certain restrictions this result also holds if the graph product is part of the input. As the second main result we prove that the positive theory of equations with recognizable constraints in graph products of finite and free groups is decidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a PSPACE-completeness result for free monoids with involution [4] it is shown that the existential theory of equations with rational constraints in plain groups is PSPACE-complete. As a corollary this settles a question from [16]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]