11,105 research outputs found
An algorithmic characterization of antimatroids
In an article entitled “Optimal sequencing of a single machine subject to precedence constraints” E.L. Lawler presented a now classical minmax result for job scheduling. In essence, Lawler's proof demonstrated that the properties of partially ordered sets were sufficient to solve the posed scheduling problem. These properties are, in fact, common to a more general class of combinatorial structures known as antimatroids, which have recently received considerable attention in the literature. It is demonstrated that the properties of antimatroids are not only sufficient but necessary to solve the scheduling problem posed by Lawler, thus yielding an algorithmic characterization of antimatroids. Examples of problems solvable by the general result are provided
Logic Meets Algebra: the Case of Regular Languages
The study of finite automata and regular languages is a privileged meeting
point of algebra and logic. Since the work of Buchi, regular languages have
been classified according to their descriptive complexity, i.e. the type of
logical formalism required to define them. The algebraic point of view on
automata is an essential complement of this classification: by providing
alternative, algebraic characterizations for the classes, it often yields the
only opportunity for the design of algorithms that decide expressibility in
some logical fragment.
We survey the existing results relating the expressibility of regular
languages in logical fragments of MSO[S] with algebraic properties of their
minimal automata. In particular, we show that many of the best known results in
this area share the same underlying mechanics and rely on a very strong
relation between logical substitutions and block-products of pseudovarieties of
monoid. We also explain the impact of these connections on circuit complexity
theory.Comment: 37 page
Abstract numeration systems on bounded languages and multiplication by a constant
A set of integers is -recognizable in an abstract numeration system if
the language made up of the representations of its elements is accepted by a
finite automaton. For abstract numeration systems built over bounded languages
with at least three letters, we show that multiplication by an integer
does not preserve -recognizability, meaning that there always
exists a -recognizable set such that is not
-recognizable. The main tool is a bijection between the representation of an
integer over a bounded language and its decomposition as a sum of binomial
coefficients with certain properties, the so-called combinatorial numeration
system
A Proof of Entropy Minimization for Outputs in Deletion Channels via Hidden Word Statistics
From the output produced by a memoryless deletion channel from a uniformly
random input of known length , one obtains a posterior distribution on the
channel input. The difference between the Shannon entropy of this distribution
and that of the uniform prior measures the amount of information about the
channel input which is conveyed by the output of length , and it is natural
to ask for which outputs this is extremized. This question was posed in a
previous work, where it was conjectured on the basis of experimental data that
the entropy of the posterior is minimized and maximized by the constant strings
and and the alternating strings
and respectively. In the present
work we confirm the minimization conjecture in the asymptotic limit using
results from hidden word statistics. We show how the analytic-combinatorial
methods of Flajolet, Szpankowski and Vall\'ee for dealing with the hidden
pattern matching problem can be applied to resolve the case of fixed output
length and , by obtaining estimates for the entropy in
terms of the moments of the posterior distribution and establishing its
minimization via a measure of autocorrelation.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Vector Reachability Problem in
The decision problems on matrices were intensively studied for many decades
as matrix products play an essential role in the representation of various
computational processes. However, many computational problems for matrix
semigroups are inherently difficult to solve even for problems in low
dimensions and most matrix semigroup problems become undecidable in general
starting from dimension three or four.
This paper solves two open problems about the decidability of the vector
reachability problem over a finitely generated semigroup of matrices from
and the point to point reachability (over rational
numbers) for fractional linear transformations, where associated matrices are
from . The approach to solving reachability problems
is based on the characterization of reachability paths between points which is
followed by the translation of numerical problems on matrices into
computational and combinatorial problems on words and formal languages. We also
give a geometric interpretation of reachability paths and extend the
decidability results to matrix products represented by arbitrary labelled
directed graphs. Finally, we will use this technique to prove that a special
case of the scalar reachability problem is decidable
The FO^2 alternation hierarchy is decidable
We consider the two-variable fragment FO^2[<] of first-order logic over
finite words. Numerous characterizations of this class are known. Th\'erien and
Wilke have shown that it is decidable whether a given regular language is
definable in FO^2[<]. From a practical point of view, as shown by Weis, FO^2[<]
is interesting since its satisfiability problem is in NP. Restricting the
number of quantifier alternations yields an infinite hierarchy inside the class
of FO^2[<]-definable languages. We show that each level of this hierarchy is
decidable. For this purpose, we relate each level of the hierarchy with a
decidable variety of finite monoids. Our result implies that there are many
different ways of climbing up the FO^2[<]-quantifier alternation hierarchy:
deterministic and co-deterministic products, Mal'cev products with definite and
reverse definite semigroups, iterated block products with J-trivial monoids,
and some inductively defined omega-term identities. A combinatorial tool in the
process of ascension is that of condensed rankers, a refinement of the rankers
of Weis and Immerman and the turtle programs of Schwentick, Th\'erien, and
Vollmer
Graph Spectral Properties of Deterministic Finite Automata
We prove that a minimal automaton has a minimal adjacency matrix rank and a
minimal adjacency matrix nullity using equitable partition (from graph spectra
theory) and Nerode partition (from automata theory). This result naturally
introduces the notion of matrix rank into a regular language L, the minimal
adjacency matrix rank of a deterministic automaton that recognises L. We then
define and focus on rank-one languages: the class of languages for which the
rank of minimal automaton is one. We also define the expanded canonical
automaton of a rank-one language.Comment: This paper has been accepted at the following conference: 18th
International Conference on Developments in Language Theory (DLT 2014),
August 26 - 29, 2014, Ekaterinburg, Russi
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