23,185 research outputs found
Width of Non-deterministic Automata
International audienceWe introduce a measure called width, quantifying the amount of nondeterminism in automata. Width generalises the notion of good-for-games (GFG) automata, that correspond to NFAs of width 1, and where an accepting run can be built on-the-fly on any accepted input. We describe an incremental determinisation construction on NFAs, which can be more efficient than the full powerset determinisation, depending on the width of the input NFA. This construction can be generalised to infinite words, and is particularly well-suited to coBüchi automata in this context. For coBüchi automata, this procedure can be used to compute either a deterministic automaton or a GFG one, and it is algorithmically more efficient in this last case. We show this fact by proving that checking whether a coBüchi automaton is determinisable by pruning is NP-complete. On finite or infinite words, we show that computing the width of an automaton is PSPACE-hard. 1 Introduction Determinisation of non-deterministic automata (NFAs) is one of the cornerstone problems of automata theory, with countless applications in verification. There is a very active field of research for optimizing or approximating determinisation, or circumventing it in contexts like inclusion of NFA or Church Synthesis. Indeed, determinisation is a costly operation, as the state space blow-up is in O(2 n) on finite words, O(3 n) for coBüchi automata [16], and 2 O(n log(n)) for Büchi automata [17]. If A and B are NFAs, the classical way of checking the inclusion L(A) ⊆ L(B) is to determinise B, complement it, and test emptiness of L(A) ∩ L(B). To circumvent a full determinisation, the recent algorithm from [3] proved to be very efficient, as it is likely to explore only a part of the powerset construction. Other approaches use simulation games to approximate inclusion at a cheaper cost, see for instance [8]. Another approach consists in replacing determinism by a weaker constraint that suffices in some particular context. In this spirit, Good-for-Games automata (GFG for short) were introduced in [9], as a way to solve the Church synthesis problem. This problem asks, given a specification L, typically given by an LTL formula, over an alphabet of inputs and outputs, whether there is a reactive system (transducer) whose behaviour is included in L. The classical solution computes a deterministic automaton for L, and solves a game defined on this automaton. It turns out that replacing determinism by the weaker constraint of being GFG is sufficient in this context. Intuitively, GFG automata are non-deterministic * This work was supported by the grant PALSE Impulsion
Scale-invariant cellular automata and self-similar Petri nets
Two novel computing models based on an infinite tessellation of space-time
are introduced. They consist of recursively coupled primitive building blocks.
The first model is a scale-invariant generalization of cellular automata,
whereas the second one utilizes self-similar Petri nets. Both models are
capable of hypercomputations and can, for instance, "solve" the halting problem
for Turing machines. These two models are closely related, as they exhibit a
step-by-step equivalence for finite computations. On the other hand, they
differ greatly for computations that involve an infinite number of building
blocks: the first one shows indeterministic behavior whereas the second one
halts. Both models are capable of challenging our understanding of
computability, causality, and space-time.Comment: 35 pages, 5 figure
Model checking Quantitative Linear Time Logic
This paper considers QLtl, a quantitative analagon of Ltl and presents algorithms for model checking QLtl over quantitative versions of Kripke structures and Markov chains
Temporalized logics and automata for time granularity
Suitable extensions of the monadic second-order theory of k successors have
been proposed in the literature to capture the notion of time granularity. In
this paper, we provide the monadic second-order theories of downward unbounded
layered structures, which are infinitely refinable structures consisting of a
coarsest domain and an infinite number of finer and finer domains, and of
upward unbounded layered structures, which consist of a finest domain and an
infinite number of coarser and coarser domains, with expressively complete and
elementarily decidable temporal logic counterparts.
We obtain such a result in two steps. First, we define a new class of
combined automata, called temporalized automata, which can be proved to be the
automata-theoretic counterpart of temporalized logics, and show that relevant
properties, such as closure under Boolean operations, decidability, and
expressive equivalence with respect to temporal logics, transfer from component
automata to temporalized ones. Then, we exploit the correspondence between
temporalized logics and automata to reduce the task of finding the temporal
logic counterparts of the given theories of time granularity to the easier one
of finding temporalized automata counterparts of them.Comment: Journal: Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Journal Acronym:
TPLP Category: Paper for Special Issue (Verification and Computational Logic)
Submitted: 18 March 2002, revised: 14 Januari 2003, accepted: 5 September
200
Groups and Semigroups Defined by Colorings of Synchronizing Automata
In this paper we combine the algebraic properties of Mealy machines
generating self-similar groups and the combinatorial properties of the
corresponding deterministic finite automata (DFA). In particular, we relate
bounded automata to finitely generated synchronizing automata and characterize
finite automata groups in terms of nilpotency of the corresponding DFA.
Moreover, we present a decidable sufficient condition to have free semigroups
in an automaton group. A series of examples and applications is widely
discussed, in particular we show a way to color the De Bruijn automata into
Mealy automata whose associated semigroups are free, and we present some
structural results related to the associated groups
Trace Complexity of Chaotic Reversible Cellular Automata
Delvenne, K\r{u}rka and Blondel have defined new notions of computational
complexity for arbitrary symbolic systems, and shown examples of effective
systems that are computationally universal in this sense. The notion is defined
in terms of the trace function of the system, and aims to capture its dynamics.
We present a Devaney-chaotic reversible cellular automaton that is universal in
their sense, answering a question that they explicitly left open. We also
discuss some implications and limitations of the construction.Comment: 12 pages + 1 page appendix, 4 figures. Accepted to Reversible
Computation 2014 (proceedings published by Springer
Intrinsic universality and the computational power of self-assembly
This short survey of recent work in tile self-assembly discusses the use of
simulation to classify and separate the computational and expressive power of
self-assembly models. The journey begins with the result that there is a single
universal tile set that, with proper initialization and scaling, simulates any
tile assembly system. This universal tile set exhibits something stronger than
Turing universality: it captures the geometry and dynamics of any simulated
system. From there we find that there is no such tile set in the
noncooperative, or temperature 1, model, proving it weaker than the full tile
assembly model. In the two-handed or hierarchal model, where large assemblies
can bind together on one step, we encounter an infinite set, of infinite
hierarchies, each with strictly increasing simulation power. Towards the end of
our trip, we find one tile to rule them all: a single rotatable flipable
polygonal tile that can simulate any tile assembly system. It seems this could
be the beginning of a much longer journey, so directions for future work are
suggested.Comment: In Proceedings MCU 2013, arXiv:1309.104
Boundedness in languages of infinite words
We define a new class of languages of -words, strictly extending
-regular languages.
One way to present this new class is by a type of regular expressions. The
new expressions are an extension of -regular expressions where two new
variants of the Kleene star are added: and . These new
exponents are used to say that parts of the input word have bounded size, and
that parts of the input can have arbitrarily large sizes, respectively. For
instance, the expression represents the language of infinite
words over the letters where there is a common bound on the number of
consecutive letters . The expression represents a similar
language, but this time the distance between consecutive 's is required to
tend toward the infinite.
We develop a theory for these languages, with a focus on decidability and
closure. We define an equivalent automaton model, extending B\"uchi automata.
The main technical result is a complementation lemma that works for languages
where only one type of exponent---either or ---is used.
We use the closure and decidability results to obtain partial decidability
results for the logic MSOLB, a logic obtained by extending monadic second-order
logic with new quantifiers that speak about the size of sets
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