Fluid Model Checking of Timed Properties

We address the problem of verifying timed properties of Markovian models of large populations of interacting agents, modelled as finite state automata. In particular, we focus on time-bounded properties of (random) individual agents specified by Deterministic Timed Automata (DTA) endowed with a single clock. Exploiting ideas from fluid approximation, we estimate the satisfaction probability of the DTA properties by reducing it to the computation of the transient probability of a subclass of Time-Inhomogeneous Markov Renewal Processes with exponentially and deterministically-timed transitions, and a small state space. For this subclass of models, we show how to derive a set of Delay Differential Equations (DDE), whose numerical solution provides a fast and accurate estimate of the satisfaction probability. In the paper, we also prove the asymptotic convergence of the approach, and exemplify the method on a simple epidemic spreading model. Finally, we also show how to construct a system of DDEs to efficiently approximate the average number of agents that satisfy the DTA specification

Positive speed for high-degree automaton groups

Mother groups are the basic building blocks for polynomial automaton groups. We show that, in contrast with mother groups of degree 0 or 1, any bounded, symmetric, generating random walk on the mother groups of degree at least 3 has positive speed. The proof is based on an analysis of resistance in fractal mother graphs. We give upper bounds on resistances in these graphs, and show that infinite versions are tran- sient.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Unary probabilistic and quantum automata on promise problems

We continue the systematic investigation of probabilistic and quantum finite automata (PFAs and QFAs) on promise problems by focusing on unary languages. We show that bounded-error QFAs are more powerful than PFAs. But, in contrary to the binary problems, the computational powers of Las-Vegas QFAs and bounded-error PFAs are equivalent to deterministic finite automata (DFAs). Lastly, we present a new family of unary promise problems with two parameters such that when fixing one parameter QFAs can be exponentially more succinct than PFAs and when fixing the other parameter PFAs can be exponentially more succinct than DFAs.Comment: Minor correction

Interference Automata

We propose a computing model, the Two-Way Optical Interference Automata (2OIA), that makes use of the phenomenon of optical interference. We introduce this model to investigate the increase in power, in terms of language recognition, of a classical Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA) when endowed with the facility of optical interference. The question is in the spirit of Two-Way Finite Automata With Quantum and Classical States (2QCFA) [A. Ambainis and J. Watrous, Two-way Finite Automata With Quantum and Classical States, Theoretical Computer Science, 287 (1), 299-311, (2002)] wherein the classical DFA is augmented with a quantum component of constant size. We test the power of 2OIA against the languages mentioned in the above paper. We give efficient 2OIA algorithms to recognize languages for which 2QCFA machines have been shown to exist, as well as languages whose status vis-a-vis 2QCFA has been posed as open questions. Finally we show the existence of a language that cannot be recognized by a 2OIA but can be recognized by an $O(n^3)$ space Turing machine.Comment: 19 pages. A preliminary version appears under the title "On a Model of Computation based on Optical Interference" in Proc. of the 16-th Australasian Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms (AWOCA'05), pp. 249-26

Efficient CSL Model Checking Using Stratification

For continuous-time Markov chains, the model-checking problem with respect to continuous-time stochastic logic (CSL) has been introduced and shown to be decidable by Aziz, Sanwal, Singhal and Brayton in 1996. Their proof can be turned into an approximation algorithm with worse than exponential complexity. In 2000, Baier, Haverkort, Hermanns and Katoen presented an efficient polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the sublogic in which only binary until is allowed. In this paper, we propose such an efficient polynomial-time approximation algorithm for full CSL. The key to our method is the notion of stratified CTMCs with respect to the CSL property to be checked. On a stratified CTMC, the probability to satisfy a CSL path formula can be approximated by a transient analysis in polynomial time (using uniformization). We present a measure-preserving, linear-time and -space transformation of any CTMC into an equivalent, stratified one. This makes the present work the centerpiece of a broadly applicable full CSL model checker. Recently, the decision algorithm by Aziz et al. was shown to work only for stratified CTMCs. As an additional contribution, our measure-preserving transformation can be used to ensure the decidability for general CTMCs.Comment: 18 pages, preprint for LMCS. An extended abstract appeared in ICALP 201