Representability is not decidable for finite relation algebras (postscript file, 19 pages)

Robin Hirsch and Ian Hodkinson

Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., to appear

We prove that it is not decidable whether a finite relation algebra is representable.

Representability of a finite relation algebra A is determined by playing a certain two player game G(A) over `atomic A-networks'. It can be shown that the second player in this game has a winning strategy if and only if A is representable.

Let T be a finite set of square tiles, where each edge of each tile has a colour. Suppose T includes a special tile whose four edges are all the same colour, a colour not used by any other tile. The tiling problem we use is this: is it the case that for each tile t in T there is a tiling of the plane Z x Z (Z being the integers) in which edge colours of adjacent tiles match and with t placed at (0,0)? It is not hard to show that this problem is undecidable.

From an instance of this tiling problem T we construct a finite relation algebra RA(T) and show that the second player has a winning strategy in G(RA(T)) if and only if T is a yes-instance. This reduces the tiling problem to the representation problem and proves the latter's undecidability.