From: orourke@grendel.csc.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: compact two manifolds
Date: 22 Jan 2001 21:37:21 -0500
Newsgroups: sci.math
Summary: Algorithmic solution to the word problem for surface groups
In article ,
Kevin Foltinek wrote:
>In article <94cf9f$nua$1@nnrp1.deja.com> Will Self
> writes:
>
>> Can anyone direct me to an algorithm that will determine when two words
>> represent the same manifold?
I may be misreading the original post, but perhaps he wanted more
of a computer algorithm, in which case this paper, which presents
"an algorithmic solution to the word problem for surface groups,"
may be of interest:
@inproceedings{s-dcc-92
, author = "H. Schipper"
, title = "Determining contractibility of curves"
, booktitle = "Proc. 8th Annu. ACM Sympos. Comput. Geom."
, year = 1992
, pages = "358--367"
}