In mathematics, the Freiheitssatz (German: "freedom/independence theorem": Freiheit + Satz ) is a result in the presentation theory of groups, stating that certain subgroups of a one-relator group are free groups.
Consider a group presentation
given by n generators xi and a single cyclically reduced relator r. If x1 appears in r, then (according to the freiheitssatz) the subgroup of G generated by x2, ..., xn is a free group, freely generated by x2, ..., xn. In other words, the only relations involving x2, ..., xn are the trivial ones.
The result was proposed by the German mathematician Max Dehn and proved by his student, Wilhelm Magnus, in his doctoral thesis. [1] Although Dehn expected Magnus to find a topological proof, [2] Magnus instead found a proof based on mathematical induction [3] and amalgamated products of groups. [4] Different induction-based proofs were given later by Lyndon (1972) and Weinbaum (1972). [3] [5] [6]
The freiheitssatz has become "the cornerstone of one-relator group theory", and motivated the development of the theory of amalgamated products. It also provides an analogue, in non-commutative group theory, of certain results on vector spaces and other commutative groups. [4]
In mathematics, a semigroup is an algebraic structure consisting of a set together with an associative internal binary operation on it.
In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as combinatorial group theory, the word problem for a finitely generated group G is the algorithmic problem of deciding whether two words in the generators represent the same element. More precisely, if A is a finite set of generators for G then the word problem is the membership problem for the formal language of all words in A and a formal set of inverses that map to the identity under the natural map from the free monoid with involution on A to the group G. If B is another finite generating set for G, then the word problem over the generating set B is equivalent to the word problem over the generating set A. Thus one can speak unambiguously of the decidability of the word problem for the finitely generated group G.
In mathematics, the free groupFS over a given set S consists of all words that can be built from members of S, considering two words to be different unless their equality follows from the group axioms. The members of S are called generators of FS, and the number of generators is the rank of the free group. An arbitrary group G is called free if it is isomorphic to FS for some subset S of G, that is, if there is a subset S of G such that every element of G can be written in exactly one way as a product of finitely many elements of S and their inverses.
In mathematics, a presentation is one method of specifying a group. A presentation of a group G comprises a set S of generators—so that every element of the group can be written as a product of powers of some of these generators—and a set R of relations among those generators. We then say G has presentation
In mathematics, a free abelian group is an abelian group with a basis. Being an abelian group means that it is a set with an addition operation that is associative, commutative, and invertible. A basis, also called an integral basis, is a subset such that every element of the group can be uniquely expressed as an integer combination of finitely many basis elements. For instance the two-dimensional integer lattice forms a free abelian group, with coordinatewise addition as its operation, and with the two points (1,0) and (0,1) as its basis. Free abelian groups have properties which make them similar to vector spaces, and may equivalently be called free-modules, the free modules over the integers. Lattice theory studies free abelian subgroups of real vector spaces. In algebraic topology, free abelian groups are used to define chain groups, and in algebraic geometry they are used to define divisors.
Max Wilhelm Dehn was a German mathematician most famous for his work in geometry, topology and geometric group theory. Born to a Jewish family in Germany, Dehn's early life and career took place in Germany. However, he was forced to retire in 1935 and eventually fled Germany in 1939 and emigrated to the United States.
Geometric group theory is an area in mathematics devoted to the study of finitely generated groups via exploring the connections between algebraic properties of such groups and topological and geometric properties of spaces on which these groups act.
In mathematics, a free Lie algebra over a field K is a Lie algebra generated by a set X, without any imposed relations other than the defining relations of alternating K-bilinearity and the Jacobi identity.
In computational mathematics, a word problem is the problem of deciding whether two given expressions are equivalent with respect to a set of rewriting identities. A prototypical example is the word problem for groups, but there are many other instances as well. A deep result of computational theory is that answering this question is in many important cases undecidable.
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
Hans Heinrich Wilhelm Magnus known as Wilhelm Magnus was a German-American mathematician. He made important contributions in combinatorial group theory, Lie algebras, mathematical physics, elliptic functions, and the study of tessellations.
In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as combinatorial group theory, Nielsen transformations, named after Jakob Nielsen, are certain automorphisms of a free group which are a non-commutative analogue of row reduction and one of the main tools used in studying free groups,. They were introduced in to prove that every subgroup of a free group is free, but are now used in a variety of mathematics, including computational group theory, k-theory, and knot theory. The textbook devotes all of chapter 3 to Nielsen transformations.
In group theory, a branch of mathematics, the Nielsen–Schreier theorem states that every subgroup of a free group is itself free. It is named after Jakob Nielsen and Otto Schreier.
In the mathematical subject of group theory, the rank of a groupG, denoted rank(G), can refer to the smallest cardinality of a generating set for G, that is
In the mathematical area of geometric group theory, a Van Kampen diagram is a planar diagram used to represent the fact that a particular word in the generators of a group given by a group presentation represents the identity element in that group.
In the mathematical subject of group theory, small cancellation theory studies groups given by group presentations satisfying small cancellation conditions, that is where defining relations have "small overlaps" with each other. Small cancellation conditions imply algebraic, geometric and algorithmic properties of the group. Finitely presented groups satisfying sufficiently strong small cancellation conditions are word hyperbolic and have word problem solvable by Dehn's algorithm. Small cancellation methods are also used for constructing Tarski monsters, and for solutions of Burnside's problem.
In the mathematical subject of geometric group theory, a Dehn function, named after Max Dehn, is an optimal function associated to a finite group presentation which bounds the area of a relation in that group in terms of the length of that relation. The growth type of the Dehn function is a quasi-isometry invariant of a finitely presented group. The Dehn function of a finitely presented group is also closely connected with non-deterministic algorithmic complexity of the word problem in groups. In particular, a finitely presented group has solvable word problem if and only if the Dehn function for a finite presentation of this group is recursive. The notion of a Dehn function is motivated by isoperimetric problems in geometry, such as the classic isoperimetric inequality for the Euclidean plane and, more generally, the notion of a filling area function that estimates the area of a minimal surface in a Riemannian manifold in terms of the length of the boundary curve of that surface.
In mathematics, and more precisely in topology, the mapping class group of a surface, sometimes called the modular group or Teichmüller modular group, is the group of homeomorphisms of the surface viewed up to continuous deformation. It is of fundamental importance for the study of 3-manifolds via their embedded surfaces and is also studied in algebraic geometry in relation to moduli problems for curves.
Roger Conant Lyndon was an American mathematician, for many years a professor at the University of Michigan. He is known for Lyndon words, the Curtis–Hedlund–Lyndon theorem, Craig–Lyndon interpolation and the Lyndon–Hochschild–Serre spectral sequence.
In the mathematical subject of group theory, a one-relator group is a group given by a group presentation with a single defining relation. One-relator groups play an important role in geometric group theory by providing many explicit examples of finitely presented groups.
