POLYNOMIAL-TIME COMPLEXITY FOR INSTANCES OF THE ENDOMORPHISM PROBLEM IN FREE GROUPS

摘要

We say the endomorphism problem is solvable for an element W in a free group F if it can be decided effectively whether, given U in F, there is an endomorphism Φ of F sending W to U. This work analyzes an approach due to Edmunds and improved by Sims. Here we prove that the approach provides an efficient algorithm for solving the endomorphism problem when W is a two-generator word. We show that when W is a two-generator word this algorithm solves the problem in time polynomial in the length of U. This result gives a polynomial-time algorithm for solving, in free groups, two-variable equations in which all the variables occur on one side of the equality and all the constants on the other side.