Word equations in a uniquely divisible group

Hillar, Christopher J. ; Levine, Lionel ; Rhea, Darren

Discrete mathematics & theoretical computer science, DMTCS Proceedings vol. AN, 22nd International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2010), DMTCS Proceedings vol. AN, 22nd International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2010) (2010).

Résumé

We study equations in groups $G$ with unique $m$-th roots for each positive integer $m$. A word equation in two letters is an expression of the form$ w(X,A) = B$, where $w$ is a finite word in the alphabet ${X,A}$. We think of $A,B ∈G$ as fixed coefficients, and $X ∈G$ as the unknown. Certain word equations, such as $XAXAX=B$, have solutions in terms of radicals: $X = A^-1/2(A^1/2BA^1/2)^1/3A^-1/2$, while others such as $X^2 A X = B$ do not. We obtain the first known infinite families of word equations not solvable by radicals, and conjecture a complete classification. To a word w we associate a polynomial $P_w ∈ℤ[x,y]$ in two commuting variables, which factors whenever $w$ is a composition of smaller words. We prove that if $P_w(x^2,y^2)$ has an absolutely irreducible factor in $ℤ[x,y]$, then the equation $w(X,A)=B$ is not solvable in terms of radicals.

Détail

DOI : 10.46298/dmtcs.2807