  In this paper we show how string rewriting methods can be applied to give a
new method of computing double cosets. Previous methods for double cosets were
enumerative and thus restricted to finite examples. Our rewriting methods do
not suffer this restriction and we present some examples of infinite double
coset systems which can now easily be solved using our approach. Even when both
enumerative and rewriting techniques are present, our rewriting methods will be
competitive because they i) do not require the preliminary calculation of
cosets; and ii) as with single coset problems, there are many examples for
which rewriting is more effective than enumeration.
  Automata provide the means for identifying expressions for normal forms in
infinite situations and we show how they may be constructed in this setting.
Further, related results on logged string rewriting for monoid presentations
are exploited to show how witnesses for the computations can be provided and
how information about the subgroups and the relations between them can be
extracted. Finally, we discuss how the double coset problem is a special case
of the problem of computing induced actions of categories which demonstrates
that our rewriting methods are applicable to a much wider class of problems
than just the double coset problem.
