Automata and groups

This class will meet in room SR6 every Tuesday and Wednesday 10:15-12:00.

It is designed as a 4th-semester course, for mathematics and computer science students. Some basic knowledge of group theory is assumed.

The focus is on the uses of automata in group theory. I singled out three main ones: (1) using automata to describe subgroups of free groups, and algorithmically answer questions related to them; (2) use automata to implement a normal form for the group, and realize the group operations in terms of this normal form; (3) use automata to directly implement group elements.

We will partly follow some notes I wrote with Pedro Silva on groups and automata. I will explain during the course a common generalization of (2) and (3), and how they can be implemented in practice.

I will post further information on this site as the semester progresses.