On commutator length in free groups

Abstract

Let $F$ be a free group. We present for arbitrary $g\in \mathbb{N}$ a LogSpace (and thus polynomial time) algorithm that determines whether a given $w\in F$ is a product of at most $g$ commutators; and more generally an algorithm that determines, given $w\in F$, the minimal $g$ such that $w$ may be written as a product of $g$ commutators (and returns $\infty$ if no such $g$ exists). The algorithm also returns words $x_1,y_1,\dots ,x_g,y_g$ such that $w=[x_1,y_1]\cdots [x_g,y_g]$. The algorithms we present are also efficient in practice. Using them, we produce the first example of a word in the free group whose commutator length decreases under taking a square. This disproves in a very strong sense a conjecture by Bardakov.