The Decidability Frontier for Probabilistic Automata on Infinite Words

We consider probabilistic automata on infinite words with acceptance defined by safety, reachability, B\"uchi, coB\"uchi, and limit-average conditions. We consider quantitative and qualitative decision problems. We present extensions and adaptations of proofs for probabilistic finite automata and present a complete characterization of the decidability and undecidability frontier of the quantitative and qualitative decision problems for probabilistic automata on infinite words

On Recognizable Languages of Infinite Pictures

An erratum is added at the end of the paper: The supremum of the set of Borel ranks of Büchi recognizable languages of infinite pictures is not the first non recursive ordinal $\omega_1^{CK}$ but an ordinal $\gamma^1_2$ which is strictly greater than the ordinal $\omega_1^{CK}$. This follows from a result proved by Kechris, Marker and Sami (JSL 1989).International audienceIn a recent paper, Altenbernd, Thomas and Wöhrle have considered acceptance of languages of infinite two-dimensional words (infinite pictures) by finite tiling systems, with the usual acceptance conditions, such as the Büchi and Muller ones, firstly used for infinite words. The authors asked for comparing the tiling system acceptance with an acceptance of pictures row by row using an automaton model over ordinal words of length $\omega^2$. We give in this paper a solution to this problem, showing that all languages of infinite pictures which are accepted row by row by Büchi or Choueka automata reading words of length $\omega^2$ are Büchi recognized by a finite tiling system, but the converse is not true. We give also the answer to two other questions which were raised by Altenbernd, Thomas and Wöhrle, showing that it is undecidable whether a Büchi recognizable language of infinite pictures is E-recognizable (respectively, A-recognizable)

Highly Undecidable Problems about Recognizability by Tiling Systems

to appear in a Special Issue of the journal Fundamenta Informaticae on Machines, Computations and Universality.International audienceAltenbernd, Thomas and Wöhrle have considered acceptance of languages of infinite two-dimensional words (infinite pictures) by finite tiling systems, with usual acceptance conditions, such as the Büchi and Muller ones [1]. It was proved in [9] that it is undecidable whether a Büchi-recognizable language of infinite pictures is E-recognizable (respectively, A-recognizable). We show here that these two decision problems are actually $\Pi_2^1$-complete, hence located at the second level of the analytical hierarchy, and ``highly undecidable". We give the exact degree of numerous other undecidable problems for Büchi-recognizable languages of infinite pictures. In particular, the non-emptiness and the infiniteness problems are $\Sigma^1_1$-complete, and the universality problem, the inclusion problem, the equivalence problem, the determinizability problem, the complementability problem, are all $\Pi^1_2$-complete. It is also $\Pi^1_2$-complete to determine whether a given Büchi recognizable language of infinite pictures can be accepted row by row using an automaton model over ordinal words of length $\omega^2$

Constructing Deterministic ?-Automata from Examples by an Extension of the RPNI Algorithm

The RPNI algorithm (Oncina, Garcia 1992) constructs deterministic finite automata from finite sets of negative and positive example words. We propose and analyze an extension of this algorithm to deterministic ?-automata with different types of acceptance conditions. In order to obtain this generalization of RPNI, we develop algorithms for the standard acceptance conditions of ?-automata that check for a given set of example words and a deterministic transition system, whether these example words can be accepted in the transition system with a corresponding acceptance condition. Based on these algorithms, we can define the extension of RPNI to infinite words. We prove that it can learn all deterministic ?-automata with an informative right congruence in the limit with polynomial time and data. We also show that the algorithm, while it can learn some automata that do not have an informative right congruence, cannot learn deterministic ?-automata for all regular ?-languages in the limit. Finally, we also prove that active learning with membership and equivalence queries is not easier for automata with an informative right congruence than for general deterministic ?-automata

Parikh Automata over Infinite Words

Parikh automata extend finite automata by counters that can be tested for membership in a semilinear set, but only at the end of a run, thereby preserving many of the desirable algorithmic properties of finite automata. Here, we study the extension of the classical framework onto infinite inputs: We introduce reachability, safety, B\"uchi, and co-B\"uchi Parikh automata on infinite words and study expressiveness, closure properties, and the complexity of verification problems. We show that almost all classes of automata have pairwise incomparable expressiveness, both in the deterministic and the nondeterministic case; a result that sharply contrasts with the well-known hierarchy in the $\omega$-regular setting. Furthermore, emptiness is shown decidable for Parikh automata with reachability or B\"uchi acceptance, but undecidable for safety and co-B\"uchi acceptance. Most importantly, we show decidability of model checking with specifications given by deterministic Parikh automata with safety or co-B\"uchi acceptance, but also undecidability for all other types of automata. Finally, solving games is undecidable for all types

Probabilistic Logic, Probabilistic Regular Expressions, and Constraint Temporal Logic

The classic theorems of Büchi and Kleene state the expressive equivalence of finite automata to monadic second order logic and regular expressions, respectively. These fundamental results enjoy applications in nearly every field of theoretical computer science. Around the same time as Büchi and Kleene, Rabin investigated probabilistic finite automata. This equally well established model has applications ranging from natural language processing to probabilistic model checking. Here, we give probabilistic extensions Büchi\\\''s theorem and Kleene\\\''s theorem to the probabilistic setting. We obtain a probabilistic MSO logic by adding an expected second order quantifier. In the scope of this quantifier, membership is determined by a Bernoulli process. This approach turns out to be universal and is applicable for finite and infinite words as well as for finite trees. In order to prove the expressive equivalence of this probabilistic MSO logic to probabilistic automata, we show a Nivat-theorem, which decomposes a recognisable function into a regular language, homomorphisms, and a probability measure. For regular expressions, we build upon existing work to obtain probabilistic regular expressions on finite and infinite words. We show the expressive equivalence between these expressions and probabilistic Muller-automata. To handle Muller-acceptance conditions, we give a new construction from probabilistic regular expressions to Muller-automata. Concerning finite trees, we define probabilistic regular tree expressions using a new iteration operator, called infinity-iteration. Again, we show that these expressions are expressively equivalent to probabilistic tree automata. On a second track of our research we investigate Constraint LTL over multidimensional data words with data values from the infinite tree. Such LTL formulas are evaluated over infinite words, where every position possesses several data values from the infinite tree. Within Constraint LTL on can compare these values from different positions. We show that the model checking problem for this logic is PSPACE-complete via investigating the emptiness problem of Constraint Büchi automata