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AndrewsCurtis conjecture 1/1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AndrewsCurtis_conjecture reference science, encyclopedia 2026-05-05T11:02:42.701762+00:00 kb-cron

In mathematics, the AndrewsCurtis conjecture states that every balanced presentation (i.e. a presentation with the same number of generators and relations) of the trivial group can be transformed into a trivial presentation by a sequence of Nielsen transformations on the relators together with conjugations of relators, named after James J. Andrews and Morton L. Curtis who proposed it in 1965. It is difficult to verify whether the conjecture holds for a given balanced presentation or not. It is widely believed that the AndrewsCurtis conjecture is false. While there are no counterexamples known, there are numerous potential counterexamples. It is known that the Zeeman conjecture on collapsibility implies the AndrewsCurtis conjecture.

== Further reading == Andrews, J. J.; Curtis, M. L. (1965), "Free groups and handlebodies", Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 16 (2), American Mathematical Society: 192195, doi:10.2307/2033843, JSTOR 2033843, MR 0173241 "Low-dimensional topology, problems in", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press, 2001 [1994]

== References ==