1,451 research outputs found
Alternating Nonzero Automata
We introduce a new class of automata on infinite trees called alternating nonzero automata, which extends the class of non-deterministic nonzero automata. The emptiness problem for this class is still open, however we identify a subclass, namely limited choice, for which we reduce the emptiness problem for alternating nonzero automata to the same problem for non-deterministic ones, which implies decidability. We obtain, as corollaries, algorithms for the satisfiability of a probabilistic temporal logic extending both CTL* and the qualitative fragment of pCTL*
From quantum cellular automata to quantum lattice gases
A natural architecture for nanoscale quantum computation is that of a quantum
cellular automaton. Motivated by this observation, in this paper we begin an
investigation of exactly unitary cellular automata. After proving that there
can be no nontrivial, homogeneous, local, unitary, scalar cellular automaton in
one dimension, we weaken the homogeneity condition and show that there are
nontrivial, exactly unitary, partitioning cellular automata. We find a one
parameter family of evolution rules which are best interpreted as those for a
one particle quantum automaton. This model is naturally reformulated as a two
component cellular automaton which we demonstrate to limit to the Dirac
equation. We describe two generalizations of this automaton, the second of
which, to multiple interacting particles, is the correct definition of a
quantum lattice gas.Comment: 22 pages, plain TeX, 9 PostScript figures included with epsf.tex
(ignore the under/overfull \vbox error messages); minor typographical
corrections and journal reference adde
Near-Optimal Scheduling for LTL with Future Discounting
We study the search problem for optimal schedulers for the linear temporal
logic (LTL) with future discounting. The logic, introduced by Almagor, Boker
and Kupferman, is a quantitative variant of LTL in which an event in the far
future has only discounted contribution to a truth value (that is a real number
in the unit interval [0, 1]). The precise problem we study---it naturally
arises e.g. in search for a scheduler that recovers from an internal error
state as soon as possible---is the following: given a Kripke frame, a formula
and a number in [0, 1] called a margin, find a path of the Kripke frame that is
optimal with respect to the formula up to the prescribed margin (a truly
optimal path may not exist). We present an algorithm for the problem; it works
even in the extended setting with propositional quality operators, a setting
where (threshold) model-checking is known to be undecidable
Finite state verifiers with constant randomness
We give a new characterization of as the class of languages
whose members have certificates that can be verified with small error in
polynomial time by finite state machines that use a constant number of random
bits, as opposed to its conventional description in terms of deterministic
logarithmic-space verifiers. It turns out that allowing two-way interaction
with the prover does not change the class of verifiable languages, and that no
polynomially bounded amount of randomness is useful for constant-memory
computers when used as language recognizers, or public-coin verifiers. A
corollary of our main result is that the class of outcome problems
corresponding to O(log n)-space bounded games of incomplete information where
the universal player is allowed a constant number of moves equals NL.Comment: 17 pages. An improved versio
An Efficient Normalisation Procedure for Linear Temporal Logic and Very Weak Alternating Automata
In the mid 80s, Lichtenstein, Pnueli, and Zuck proved a classical theorem
stating that every formula of Past LTL (the extension of LTL with past
operators) is equivalent to a formula of the form , where
and contain only past operators. Some years later, Chang,
Manna, and Pnueli built on this result to derive a similar normal form for LTL.
Both normalisation procedures have a non-elementary worst-case blow-up, and
follow an involved path from formulas to counter-free automata to star-free
regular expressions and back to formulas. We improve on both points. We present
a direct and purely syntactic normalisation procedure for LTL yielding a normal
form, comparable to the one by Chang, Manna, and Pnueli, that has only a single
exponential blow-up. As an application, we derive a simple algorithm to
translate LTL into deterministic Rabin automata. The algorithm normalises the
formula, translates it into a special very weak alternating automaton, and
applies a simple determinisation procedure, valid only for these special
automata.Comment: This is the extended version of the referenced conference paper and
contains an appendix with additional materia
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