Succinctness of two-way probabilistic and quantum finite automata

We prove that two-way probabilistic and quantum finite automata (2PFA's and 2QFA's) can be considerably more concise than both their one-way versions (1PFA's and 1QFA's), and two-way nondeterministic finite automata (2NFA's). For this purpose, we demonstrate several infinite families of regular languages which can be recognized with some fixed probability greater than ${1/2}$ by just tuning the transition amplitudes of a 2QFA (and, in one case, a 2PFA) with a constant number of states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding 1PFA's, 1QFA's and 2NFA's grow without bound. We also show that 2QFA's with mixed states can support highly efficient probability amplification. The weakest known model of computation where quantum computers recognize more languages with bounded error than their classical counterparts is introduced.Comment: A new version, 21 pages, late

Advances and applications of automata on words and trees : abstracts collection

From 12.12.2010 to 17.12.2010, the Dagstuhl Seminar 10501 "Advances and Applications of Automata on Words and Trees" was held in Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz Center for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

Implications of quantum automata for contextuality

We construct zero-error quantum finite automata (QFAs) for promise problems which cannot be solved by bounded-error probabilistic finite automata (PFAs). Here is a summary of our results: - There is a promise problem solvable by an exact two-way QFA in exponential expected time, but not by any bounded-error sublogarithmic space probabilistic Turing machine (PTM). - There is a promise problem solvable by an exact two-way QFA in quadratic expected time, but not by any bounded-error $o(\log \log n)$-space PTMs in polynomial expected time. The same problem can be solvable by a one-way Las Vegas (or exact two-way) QFA with quantum head in linear (expected) time. - There is a promise problem solvable by a Las Vegas realtime QFA, but not by any bounded-error realtime PFA. The same problem can be solvable by an exact two-way QFA in linear expected time but not by any exact two-way PFA. - There is a family of promise problems such that each promise problem can be solvable by a two-state exact realtime QFAs, but, there is no such bound on the number of states of realtime bounded-error PFAs solving the members this family. Our results imply that there exist zero-error quantum computational devices with a \emph{single qubit} of memory that cannot be simulated by any finite memory classical computational model. This provides a computational perspective on results regarding ontological theories of quantum mechanics \cite{Hardy04}, \cite{Montina08}. As a consequence we find that classical automata based simulation models \cite{Kleinmann11}, \cite{Blasiak13} are not sufficiently powerful to simulate quantum contextuality. We conclude by highlighting the interplay between results from automata models and their application to developing a general framework for quantum contextuality.Comment: 22 page

Advances and applications of automata on words and trees : executive summary

Seminar: 10501 - Advances and Applications of Automata on Words and Trees. The aim of the seminar was to discuss and systematize the recent fast progress in automata theory and to identify important directions for future research. For this, the seminar brought together more than 40 researchers from automata theory and related fields of applications. We had 19 talks of 30 minutes and 5 one-hour lectures leaving ample room for discussions. In the following we describe the topics in more detail

On determinism versus nondeterminism for restarting automata

AbstractA restarting automaton processes a given word by executing a sequence of local simplifications until a simple word is obtained that the automaton then accepts. Such a computation is expressed as a sequence of cycles. A nondeterministic restarting automaton M is called correctness preserving, if, for each cycle u⊢Mcv, the string v belongs to the characteristic language LC(M) of M, if the string u does. Our first result states that for each type of restarting automaton X∈{R,RW,RWW,RL,RLW,RLWW}, if M is a nondeterministic X-automaton that is correctness preserving, then there exists a deterministic X-automaton M1 such that the characteristic languages LC(M1) and LC(M) coincide. When a restarting automaton M executes a cycle that transforms a string from the language LC(M) into a string not belonging to LC(M), then this can be interpreted as an error of M. By counting the number of cycles it may take M to detect this error, we obtain a measure for the influence that errors have on computations. Accordingly, this measure is called error detection distance. It turns out, however, that an X-automaton with bounded error detection distance is equivalent to a correctness preserving X-automaton, and therewith to a deterministic X-automaton. This means that nondeterminism increases the expressive power of X-automata only in combination with an unbounded error detection distance

Commutative Languages and their Composition by Consensual Methods

Commutative languages with the semilinear property (SLIP) can be naturally recognized by real-time NLOG-SPACE multi-counter machines. We show that unions and concatenations of such languages can be similarly recognized, relying on -- and further developing, our recent results on the family of consensually regular (CREG) languages. A CREG language is defined by a regular language on the alphabet that includes the terminal alphabet and its marked copy. New conditions, for ensuring that the union or concatenation of CREG languages is closed, are presented and applied to the commutative SLIP languages. The paper contributes to the knowledge of the CREG family, and introduces novel techniques for language composition, based on arithmetic congruences that act as language signatures. Open problems are listed.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527

Restarting Automata with Auxiliary Symbols and Small Lookahead

We present a study on lookahead hierarchies for restarting automata with auxiliary symbols and small lookahead. In particular, we show that there are just two different classes of languages recognised RRWW automata, through the restriction of lookahead size. We also show that the respective (left-) monotone restarting automaton models characterise the context-free languages and that the respective right-left-monotone restarting automata characterise the linear languages both with just lookahead length 2.Comment: Full version of the paper accepted to LATA 201

26. Theorietag Automaten und Formale Sprachen 23. Jahrestagung Logik in der Informatik: Tagungsband

Der Theorietag ist die Jahrestagung der Fachgruppe Automaten und Formale Sprachen der Gesellschaft für Informatik und fand erstmals 1991 in Magdeburg statt. Seit dem Jahr 1996 wird der Theorietag von einem eintägigen Workshop mit eingeladenen Vorträgen begleitet. Die Jahrestagung der Fachgruppe Logik in der Informatik der Gesellschaft für Informatik fand erstmals 1993 in Leipzig statt. Im Laufe beider Jahrestagungen finden auch die jährliche Fachgruppensitzungen statt. In diesem Jahr wird der Theorietag der Fachgruppe Automaten und Formale Sprachen erstmalig zusammen mit der Jahrestagung der Fachgruppe Logik in der Informatik abgehalten. Organisiert wurde die gemeinsame Veranstaltung von der Arbeitsgruppe Zuverlässige Systeme des Instituts für Informatik an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel vom 4. bis 7. Oktober im Tagungshotel Tannenfelde bei Neumünster. Während des Tre↵ens wird ein Workshop für alle Interessierten statt finden. In Tannenfelde werden • Christoph Löding (Aachen) • Tomás Masopust (Dresden) • Henning Schnoor (Kiel) • Nicole Schweikardt (Berlin) • Georg Zetzsche (Paris) eingeladene Vorträge zu ihrer aktuellen Arbeit halten. Darüber hinaus werden 26 Vorträge von Teilnehmern und Teilnehmerinnen gehalten, 17 auf dem Theorietag Automaten und formale Sprachen und neun auf der Jahrestagung Logik in der Informatik. Der vorliegende Band enthält Kurzfassungen aller Beiträge. Wir danken der Gesellschaft für Informatik, der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel und dem Tagungshotel Tannenfelde für die Unterstützung dieses Theorietags. Ein besonderer Dank geht an das Organisationsteam: Maike Bradler, Philipp Sieweck, Joel Day. Kiel, Oktober 2016 Florin Manea, Dirk Nowotka und Thomas Wilk

State-deterministic Finite Automata with Translucent Letters and Finite Automata with Nondeterministically Translucent Letters

Deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata with translucent letters were introduced by Nagy and Otto more than a decade ago as Cooperative Distributed systems of a kind of stateless restarting automata with window size one. These finite state machines have a surprisingly large expressive power: all commutative semi-linear languages and all rational trace languages can be accepted by them including various not context-free languages. While the nondeterministic variant defines a language class with nice closure properties, the deterministic variant is weaker, however it contains all regular languages, some non-regular context-free languages, as the Dyck language, and also some languages that are not even context-free. In all those models for each state, the letters of the alphabet could be in one of the following categories: the automaton cannot see the letter (it is translucent), there is a transition defined on the letter (maybe more than one transitions in nondeterministic case) or none of the above categories (the automaton gets stuck by seeing this letter at the given state and this computation is not accepting). State-deterministic automata are recent models, where the next state of the computation determined by the structure of the automata and it is independent of the processed letters. In this paper our aim is twofold, on the one hand, we investigate state-deterministic finite automata with translucent letters. These automata are specially restricted deterministic finite automata with translucent letters. In the other novel model we present, it is allowed that for a state the set of translucent letters and the set of letters for which transition is defined are not disjoint. One can interpret this fact that the automaton has a nondeterministic choice for each occurrence of such letters to see them (and then erase and make the transition) or not to see that occurrence at that time. Based on these semi-translucent letters, the expressive power of the automata increases, i.e., in this way a proper generalization of the previous models is obtained.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2023, arXiv:2309.0112