The averaging trick and the Cerny conjecture

The results of several papers concerning the \v{C}ern\'y conjecture are deduced as consequences of a simple idea that I call the averaging trick. This idea is implicitly used in the literature, but no attempt was made to formalize the proof scheme axiomatically. Instead, authors axiomatized classes of automata to which it applies

Synchronizing non-deterministic finite automata

In this paper, we show that every D3-directing CNFA can be mapped uniquely to a DFA with the same synchronizing word length. This implies that \v{C}ern\'y's conjecture generalizes to CNFAs and that the general upper bound for the length of a shortest D3-directing word is equal to the Pin-Frankl bound for DFAs. As a second consequence, for several classes of CNFAs sharper bounds are established. Finally, our results allow us to detect all critical CNFAs on at most 6 states. It turns out that only very few critical CNFAs exist.Comment: 21 page

Experiments on synchronizing automata

This work is motivated by the Černý Conjecture – an old unsolved problem in the automata theory. We describe the results of the experiments on synchronizing automata, which have led us to two interesting results. The first one is that the size of an automaton alphabet may play an important role in the issue of synchronization: we have found a 5-state automaton over a 3-letter alphabet which attains the upper bound from the Černý Conjecture, while there is no such automaton (except Černý automaton $C_5$) over a binary alphabet. The second result emerging from the experiments is a theorem describing the dependencies between the automaton structure $S$ expressed in terms of the so-called merging system and the maximal length of all minimal synchronizing words for automata of type $S$

Between primitive and 2-transitive : synchronization and its friends

The second author was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) through the project CEMAT-CIÊNCIAS UID/Multi/ 04621/2013An automaton (consisting of a finite set of states with given transitions) is said to be synchronizing if there is a word in the transitions which sends all states of the automaton to a single state. Research on this topic has been driven by the Černý conjecture, one of the oldest and most famous problems in automata theory, according to which a synchronizing n-state automaton has a reset word of length at most (n − 1)2 . The transitions of an automaton generate a transformation monoid on the set of states, and so an automaton can be regarded as a transformation monoid with a prescribed set of generators. In this setting, an automaton is synchronizing if the transitions generate a constant map. A permutation group G on a set Ω is said to synchronize a map f if the monoid (G, f) generated by G and f is synchronizing in the above sense; we say G is synchronizing if it synchronizes every non-permutation. The classes of synchronizing groups and friends form an hierarchy of natural and elegant classes of groups lying strictly between the classes of primitive and 2-homogeneous groups. These classes have been floating around for some years and it is now time to provide a unified reference on them. The study of all these classes has been prompted by the Černý conjecture, but it is of independent interest since it involves a rich mix of group theory, combinatorics, graph endomorphisms, semigroup theory, finite geometry, and representation theory, and has interesting computational aspects as well. So as to make the paper self-contained, we have provided background material on these topics. Our purpose here is to present recent work on synchronizing groups and related topics. In addition to the results that show the connections between the various areas of mathematics mentioned above, we include a new result on the Černý conjecture (a strengthening of a theorem of Rystsov), some challenges to finite geometers (which classical polar spaces can be partitioned into ovoids?), some thoughts about infinite analogues, and a long list of open problems to stimulate further work.PostprintPeer reviewe

Synchronization of finite automata

A survey of the state-of-the-art of the theory of synchronizing automata is given in its part concerned with the case of complete deterministic automata. Algorithmic and complexity-theoretic aspects are considered, the existing results related to Černý’s conjecture and methods for their derivation are presented. Bibliography: 193 titles. © 2022 Russian Academy of Sciences, Steklov Mathematical Institute of RAS.Russian Foundation for Basic Research, РФФИ, (19-11-50120)Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka, (FEUZ-2020-0016)This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under grant no. 19-11-50120 and by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (project no. FEUZ-2020-0016)

A Theory of Transformation Monoids: Combinatorics and Representation Theory

The aim of this paper is to develop a theory of finite transformation monoids and in particular to study primitive transformation monoids. We introduce the notion of orbitals and orbital digraphs for transformation monoids and prove a monoid version of D. Higman's celebrated theorem characterizing primitivity in terms of connectedness of orbital digraphs. A thorough study of the module (or representation) associated to a transformation monoid is initiated. In particular, we compute the projective cover of the transformation module over a field of characteristic zero in the case of a transitive transformation or partial transformation monoid. Applications of probability theory and Markov chains to transformation monoids are also considered and an ergodic theorem is proved in this context. In particular, we obtain a generalization of a lemma of P. Neumann, from the theory of synchronizing groups, concerning the partition associated to a transformation of minimal rank