Algorithmic Methods in Combinatorial Algebra

Sammanfattning: This thesis consists of a collection of articles all using and/or developing algorithmic methods for the investigation of different algebraic structures. Part A concerns orthogonal decompositions of simple Lie algebras. The main result of this part is that the symplectic Lie algebra C3 has no orthogonal decomposition of so called monomial type. This was achieved by developing an algorithm for finding all monomial orthogonal decompositions and implementing it in Maple. In part B we study subalgebras on two generators of the univariate polynomial ring and the semigroups of degrees associated to such subalgebras. The generators f and g of the subalgebra constitute a so called SAGBI basis if and only if the semigroup of degrees is generated by deg(f) and deg(g). We show that this occurs exactly when both the generators are contained in a subalgebra k[h] for some polynomial h of degree equal to the greatest common divisor of the degrees of f and g. In particular this is the case whenever the degrees of f and g are relatively prime. There is an algorithmic test to check if a set polynomials constitute a SAGBI basis and our proof is by showing that the condition of this test is satisfied. We present two ways of proving this. The first one uses the fact that g is integral over k[f] and therefore satisfies a polynomial equation over k[f], while the second one gives this equation explicitly as a resultant related to f and g. Part C of the thesis is about maximal symmetry groups of hyperbolic three-manifolds. Those are groups of orientation preserving isometries of three-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds that are of maximal order in relation to the volume of the manifold. One can show that maximal symmetry groups are the quotients by normal torsion free subgroups of a certain finitely presented group. We use different computational methods to find such quotients. Our main results are the following: PGL(2,9) is the smallest maximal symmetry group, and for each prime p there is some prime power q=pk such that either PSL(2,q) or PGL(2,q) is a maximal symmetry group, and all but finitely many alternating and symmetric groups are maximal symmetry groups.