EQUATIONS IN FREE INVERSE MONOIDS

Abstract

It is known that the problem of determining consistency of a finite system of equations in a free group or a free monoid is decidable, but the corresponding problem for systems of equations in a free inverse monoid of rank at least two is undecidable. Any solution to a system of equations in a free inverse monoid induces a solution to the corresponding system of equations in the associated free group in an obvious way, but solutions to systems of equations in free groups do not necessarily lift to solutions in free inverse monoids. In this paper, we show that the problem of determining whether a solution to a finite system of equations in a free group can be extended to a solution of the corresponding system in the associated free inverse monoid is decidable. We are able to use this to solve the consistency problem for certain classes of single-variable equations in free inverse monoids.