On finitely generated submonoids of virtually free groups

Abstract We prove that it is decidable whether or not a finitely generated submonoid of a virtually free group is graded, introduce a new geometric characterization of graded submonoids in virtually free groups as quasi-geodesic submonoids, and show that their word problem is rational (as a relation). We also solve the isomorphism problem for this class of monoids, generalizing earlier results for submonoids of free monoids. We also prove that the classes of graded monoids, regular monoids and Kleene monoids coincide for submonoids of free groups.