Charyon's profile - activity

What you are asking for is known as the word problem.

In your case, you can do (the answer is quite a huge product):

sage: P = PermutationGroup([[(13,14,15,16)], [(1,2,3,4),(5,6,7,8),(9,10,11,12)], [(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)]])
sage: P.gens()
[(13,14,15,16), (1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12), (1,5,9,13,12,8,4)]
sage: p = P((1,2))
sage: ans = p.word_problem(P.gens(), display=False)
sage: ans[0]
'x3*x2^-1*x3*x2^2*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3^-1*x2^-2*x3*x2^-1*x3^-2*x2^-1*x3^\n-1*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3*x2^-1*x3^-1*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3*x2^\n-2*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3*x2*x1*x3*x1^-1*x3^-1*x1^-1*x3*x1*x3^-1*x1^2*x3*x1^-3*x3^\n-1*x1^-1*x2^-1*x1^-1*x3*x2^-1*x3*x2^2*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3^-1*x2^\n-2*x3*x2^-1*x3^-2*x2^-1*x3^-1*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3^-1*x2^-1*x3*x2^-1*x3^\n-1*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3*x2^-2*x3^-1*x2^-2*x3^-1*x2*x3*x2^-1*x3*x2'
sage: ans[1]
'(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-2*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^\n-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^\n-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)*(13,14,15,16)*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(13,14,15,16)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(13,14,15,16)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(13,14,15,16)*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(13,14,15,16)^2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(13,14,15,16)^-3*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^\n-1*(13,14,15,16)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(13,14,15,16)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^\n-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-2*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^\n-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-2*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)^-1*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)^-1*(1,5,9,13,12,8,4)*(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12)'

Suppose that I have a group generated by three elements (written in cycle notation). I know that Sage will find all of the elements of this group.

What I need is to be able to write a given permutation as a product of these generators.

Any ideas?

For refernce, I am working in S_16. My generators are a=(13,14,15,16), b=(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)(9,10,11,12), and c=(1,5,9,13,12,8,4). I want to "factor" (1,2) and (1,5) as a product of a,b,c.