Computational Complexity of Synchronization under Regular Constraints

Many variations of synchronization of finite automata have been studied in the previous decades. Here, we suggest studying the question if synchronizing words exist that belong to some fixed constraint language, given by some partial finite automaton called constraint automaton. We show that this synchronization problem becomes PSPACE-complete even for some constraint automata with two states and a ternary alphabet. In addition, we characterize constraint automata with arbitrarily many states for which the constrained synchronization problem is polynomial-time solvable. We classify the complexity of the constrained synchronization problem for constraint automata with two states and two or three letters completely and lift those results to larger classes of finite automata

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)