Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-120/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 120 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Fix the first tape of the group multiplier automaton to be . Construct its possible runs by dynamic programming, one column at a time. A record consists of a state and a flag indicating whether the output tape has ended. At column , the first symbol is and the second symbol may be any letter of the alphabet, or ; after the second tape first uses it must continue to use . At later columns the first symbol is , and an additional column must have a genuine letter on the second tape. Never add a column.
Keep one predecessor record and its output symbol for each reachable state-and-flag pair in each layer. Two runs reaching the same record have exactly the same possible future completions, so this merging loses no accepting output. The merged dead state of a finite automaton can be discarded. At each layer , test whether a reached state is accepting; the initial layer is included when . Upon success, follow predecessor records backwards and omit padding symbols to recover .
The automatic structure for a group supplies a representative in of , so an accepted padded convolution of words exists and this search terminates. The output is the required representative:The search uses only the finite transition table; it does not presuppose a solution to the word problem for a group.
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