The computability of group constructions II

Abstract

Finitely presented groups having word, problem solvable by functions in the relativized Grzegorczyk hierarchy, {En(A)| n ε N, A ⊂ N (N the natural numbers)} are studied. Basically the class E3 consists of the elementary functions of Kalmar and En+1 is obtained from En by unbounded recursion. The relativization En(A) is obtained by adjoining the characteristic function of A to the class En.It is shown that the Higman construction embedding, a finitely generated group with a recursively enumerable set of relations into a finitely presented group, preserves the computational level of the word problem with respect to the relativized Grzegorczyk hierarchy. As a corollary it is shown that for every n ≥ 4 and A ⊂ N recursively enumerable there exists a finitely presented group with word problem solvable at level En(A) but not En-1(A). In particular, there exist finitely presented groups with word problem solvable at level En but not En-1 for n ≥ 4, answering a question of Cannonito.