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Conjugacy Problem
In abstract algebra, the conjugacy problem for a group ''G'' with a given presentation is the decision problem of determining, given two words ''x'' and ''y'' in ''G'', whether or not they represent conjugate elements of ''G''. That is, the problem is to determine whether there exists an element ''z'' of ''G'' such that :y = zxz^.\,\! The conjugacy problem is also known as the transformation problem. The conjugacy problem was identified by Max Dehn in 1911 as one of the fundamental decision problems in group theory; the other two being the word problem and the isomorphism problem. The conjugacy problem contains the word problem as a special case: if ''x'' and ''y'' are words, deciding if they are the same word is equivalent to deciding if xy^ is the identity, which is the same as deciding if it's conjugate to the identity. In 1912 Dehn gave an algorithm that solves both the word and conjugacy problem for the fundamental groups of closed orientable two-dimensional manifolds of g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abstract Algebra
In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures. Algebraic structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, lattices, and algebras over a field. The term ''abstract algebra'' was coined in the early 20th century to distinguish this area of study from older parts of algebra, and more specifically from elementary algebra, the use of variables to represent numbers in computation and reasoning. Algebraic structures, with their associated homomorphisms, form mathematical categories. Category theory is a formalism that allows a unified way for expressing properties and constructions that are similar for various structures. Universal algebra is a related subject that studies types of algebraic structures as single objects. For example, the structure of groups is a single object in universal algebra, which is called the ''variety of groups''. History Before the nineteenth century, algebra meant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Undecidable Problem
In computability theory and computational complexity theory, an undecidable problem is a decision problem for which it is proved to be impossible to construct an algorithm that always leads to a correct yes-or-no answer. The halting problem is an example: it can be proven that there is no algorithm that correctly determines whether arbitrary programs eventually halt when run. Background A decision problem is any arbitrary yes-or-no question on an infinite set of inputs. Because of this, it is traditional to define the decision problem equivalently as the set of inputs for which the problem returns ''yes''. These inputs can be natural numbers, but also other values of some other kind, such as strings of a formal language. Using some encoding, such as a Gödel numbering, the strings can be encoded as natural numbers. Thus, a decision problem informally phrased in terms of a formal language is also equivalent to a set of natural numbers. To keep the formal definition simple, it is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dover Publications
Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be scarce or historically significant. Dover republishes these books, making them available at a significantly reduced cost. Classic reprints Dover reprints classic works of literature, classical sheet music, and public-domain images from the 18th and 19th centuries. Dover also publishes an extensive collection of mathematical, scientific, and engineering texts. It often targets its reprints at a niche market, such as woodworking. Starting in 2015, the company branched out into graphic novel reprints, overseen by Dover acquisitions editor and former comics writer and editor Drew Ford. Most Dover reprints are photo facsimiles of the originals, retaining the original pagination and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fundamental Group
In the mathematical field of algebraic topology, the fundamental group of a topological space is the group of the equivalence classes under homotopy of the loops contained in the space. It records information about the basic shape, or holes, of the topological space. The fundamental group is the first and simplest homotopy group. The fundamental group is a homotopy invariant—topological spaces that are homotopy equivalent (or the stronger case of homeomorphic) have isomorphic fundamental groups. The fundamental group of a topological space X is denoted by \pi_1(X). Intuition Start with a space (for example, a surface), and some point in it, and all the loops both starting and ending at this point— paths that start at this point, wander around and eventually return to the starting point. Two loops can be combined in an obvious way: travel along the first loop, then along the second. Two loops are considered equivalent if one can be deformed into the other without breakin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CAT(0)
In mathematics, a \mathbf(k) space, where k is a real number, is a specific type of metric space. Intuitively, triangles in a \operatorname(k) space are "slimmer" than corresponding "model triangles" in a standard space of constant curvature k. In a \operatorname(k) space, the curvature is bounded from above by k. A notable special case is k=0; complete \operatorname(0) spaces are known as "Hadamard spaces" after the French mathematician Jacques Hadamard. Originally, Aleksandrov called these spaces “\mathfrak_k domain”. The terminology \operatorname(k) was coined by Mikhail Gromov in 1987 and is an acronym for Élie Cartan, Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov and Victor Andreevich Toponogov (although Toponogov never explored curvature bounded above in publications). Definitions For a real number k, let M_k denote the unique complete simply connected surface (real 2-dimensional Riemannian manifold) with constant curvature k. Denote by D_k the diameter of M_k, which is \infty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automatic Group
In mathematics, an automatic group is a finitely generated group equipped with several finite-state automata. These automata represent the Cayley graph of the group. That is, they can tell if a given word representation of a group element is in a "canonical form" and can tell if two elements given in canonical words differ by a generator. More precisely, let ''G'' be a group and ''A'' be a finite set of generators. Then an ''automatic structure'' of ''G'' with respect to ''A'' is a set of finite-state automata: * the ''word-acceptor'', which accepts for every element of ''G'' at least one word in A^\ast representing it; *''multipliers'', one for each a \in A \cup \, which accept a pair (''w''1, ''w''2), for words ''w''''i'' accepted by the word-acceptor, precisely when w_1 a = w_2 in ''G''. The property of being automatic does not depend on the set of generators. Properties Automatic groups have word problem solvable in quadratic time. More strongly, a given word can actual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperbolic Group
In group theory, more precisely in geometric group theory, a hyperbolic group, also known as a ''word hyperbolic group'' or ''Gromov hyperbolic group'', is a finitely generated group equipped with a word metric satisfying certain properties abstracted from classical hyperbolic geometry. The notion of a hyperbolic group was introduced and developed by . The inspiration came from various existing mathematical theories: hyperbolic geometry but also low-dimensional topology (in particular the results of Max Dehn concerning the fundamental group of a hyperbolic Riemann surface, and more complex phenomena in three-dimensional topology), and combinatorial group theory. In a very influential (over 1000 citations ) chapter from 1987, Gromov proposed a wide-ranging research program. Ideas and foundational material in the theory of hyperbolic groups also stem from the work of George Mostow, William Thurston, James W. Cannon, Eliyahu Rips, and many others. Definition Let G be a finitely g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knot Group
In mathematics, a knot is an embedding of a circle into 3-dimensional Euclidean space. The knot group of a knot ''K'' is defined as the fundamental group of the knot complement of ''K'' in R3, :\pi_1(\mathbb^3 \setminus K). Other conventions consider knots to be embedded in the 3-sphere, in which case the knot group is the fundamental group of its complement in S^3. Properties Two equivalent knots have isomorphic knot groups, so the knot group is a knot invariant and can be used to distinguish between certain pairs of inequivalent knots. This is because an equivalence between two knots is a self-homeomorphism of \mathbb^3 that is isotopic to the identity and sends the first knot onto the second. Such a homeomorphism restricts onto a homeomorphism of the complements of the knots, and this restricted homeomorphism induces an isomorphism of fundamental groups. However, it is possible for two inequivalent knots to have isomorphic knot groups (see below for an example). The ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Braid Group
A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-stranded structure. More complex patterns can be constructed from an arbitrary number of strands to create a wider range of structures (such as a fishtail braid, a five-stranded braid, rope braid, a French braid and a waterfall braid). The structure is usually long and narrow with each component strand functionally equivalent in zigzagging forward through the overlapping mass of the others. It can be compared with the process of weaving, which usually involves two separate perpendicular groups of strands (warp and weft). Historically, the materials used have depended on the indigenous plants and animals available in the local area. During the Industrial Revolution, mechanized braiding equipment was invented to increase production. The braiding te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manifold
In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open subset of n-dimensional Euclidean space. One-dimensional manifolds include lines and circles, but not lemniscates. Two-dimensional manifolds are also called surfaces. Examples include the plane, the sphere, and the torus, and also the Klein bottle and real projective plane. The concept of a manifold is central to many parts of geometry and modern mathematical physics because it allows complicated structures to be described in terms of well-understood topological properties of simpler spaces. Manifolds naturally arise as solution sets of systems of equations and as graphs of functions. The concept has applications in computer-graphics given the need to associate pictures with coordinates (e.g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Group (mathematics)
In mathematics, a group is a Set (mathematics), set and an Binary operation, operation that combines any two Element (mathematics), elements of the set to produce a third element of the set, in such a way that the operation is Associative property, associative, an identity element exists and every element has an Inverse element, inverse. These three axioms hold for Number#Main classification, number systems and many other mathematical structures. For example, the integers together with the addition operation form a group. The concept of a group and the axioms that define it were elaborated for handling, in a unified way, essential structural properties of very different mathematical entities such as numbers, geometric shapes and polynomial roots. Because the concept of groups is ubiquitous in numerous areas both within and outside mathematics, some authors consider it as a central organizing principle of contemporary mathematics. In geometry groups arise naturally in the study of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fundamental Group
In the mathematical field of algebraic topology, the fundamental group of a topological space is the group of the equivalence classes under homotopy of the loops contained in the space. It records information about the basic shape, or holes, of the topological space. The fundamental group is the first and simplest homotopy group. The fundamental group is a homotopy invariant—topological spaces that are homotopy equivalent (or the stronger case of homeomorphic) have isomorphic fundamental groups. The fundamental group of a topological space X is denoted by \pi_1(X). Intuition Start with a space (for example, a surface), and some point in it, and all the loops both starting and ending at this point— paths that start at this point, wander around and eventually return to the starting point. Two loops can be combined in an obvious way: travel along the first loop, then along the second. Two loops are considered equivalent if one can be deformed into the other without breakin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
