Groupoids and the algebra of rewriting in group presentations

N. D. Gilbert, E. A. McDougall

Published 2019-01-14Version 1

Presentations of groups by rewriting systems (that is, by monoid presentations), have been fruitfully studied by encoding the rewriting system in a $2$--complex -- the Squier complex -- whose fundamental groupoid then describes the derivation of consequences of the rewrite rules. We describe a reduced form of the Squier complex, investigate the structure of its fundamental groupoid, and show that key properties of the presentation are still encoded in the reduced form.