Reset machines

AbstractA reset tape has one read-write head which moves only left-to-right except that the head can be reset once to the left end and the tape rescanned; a multiple-reset machine has reset tapes as auxiliary storage and a one-way input tape. Linear time is no more powerful than real time for nondeterministic multiple-reset machines and so the family MULTI-RESET of languages accepted in real time by nondeterministic multiple-reset machines is closed under linear erasing. MULTI-RESET is closed under Kleene. It can be characterized as the smallest family of languages containing the regular sets and closed under intersection and linear-erasing homomorphic duplication or as the smallest intersection-closed semiAFL containing COPY = {ww | w in {a, b}∗}. A circular tape is read full-sweep from left-to-right only and then reset to the left, any number of times; a nonwriting circular tape cannot be altered after the first sweep. For nondeterministic machines operating in real time, multiple reset tapes, circular tapes or nonwriting circular tapes have the same power. Languages in MULTI-RESET can be accepted in real time by nondeterministic machines using only three reset tapes or using only one reset tape and one nonwriting circular tape

Self-regulating finite automata

This paper introduces and discusses self-regulating finite automata. In essence, these automata regulate the use of their rules by a sequence of rules applied during previous moves. A special attention is paid to turns defined as moves during which a self-regulating finite automaton starts a new self-regulating sequence of moves. Based on the number of turns, the present paper establishes two infinite hierarchies of language families resulting from two variants of these automata. In addition, it demonstrates that these hierarchies coincide with the hierarchies resulting from parallel right linear grammars and right linear simple matrix grammars, so the self-regulating finite automata can be viewed as the automaton counterparts to these grammars. Finally, this paper compares both infinite hierarchies. In addition, as an open problem area, it suggests the discussion of self-regulating pushdown automata and points out that they give rise to no infinite hierarchy analogical to the achieved hierarchies resulting from the self-regulating finite automata

On Minimality and Size Reduction of One-Tape and Multitape Finite Automata

In this thesis, we consider minimality and size reduction issues of one-tape and multitape automata. Although the topic of minimization of one-tape automata has been widely studied for many years, it seems that some issues have not gained attention. One of these issues concerns finding specific conditions on automata that imply their minimality in the class of nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) accepting the same language. Using the theory of NFA minimization developed by Kameda and Weiner in 1970, we show that any bideterministic automaton (that is, a deterministic automaton with its reversal also being deterministic) is a unique minimal automaton among all NFA accepting its language. In addition to the minimality in regard to the number of states, we also show its minimality in the number of transitions. Using the same theory of Kameda and Weiner, we also obtain a more general minimality result. We specify a set of sufficient conditions under which a minimal deterministic automaton (DFA

Small overlap monoids II: automatic structures and normal forms

We show that any finite monoid or semigroup presentation satisfying the small overlap condition C(4) has word problem which is a deterministic rational relation. It follows that the set of lexicographically minimal words forms a regular language of normal forms, and that these normal forms can be computed in linear time. We also deduce that C(4) monoids and semigroups are rational (in the sense of Sakarovitch), asynchronous automatic, and word hyperbolic (in the sense of Duncan and Gilman). From this it follows that C(4) monoids satisfy analogues of Kleene's theorem, and admit decision algorithms for the rational subset and finitely generated submonoid membership problems. We also prove some automata-theoretic results which may be of independent interest.Comment: 17 page

On pure multi-pushdown automata that perform complete pushdown pops

This paper introduces and discusses pure multi-pushdown automata that remove symbols from their pushdowns only by performing complete pushdown pops. This means that during a pop operation, the entire pushdown is compared with a prefix of the input, and if they match, the whole contents of the pushdown is erased and the input is advanced by the prefix. The paper proves that these automata define an infinite hierarchy of language families identical with the infinite hierarchy of language families resulting from right linear simple matrix grammars. In addition, this paper discusses some other extensions of these automata with respect to operations they can perform with their pushdowns. More specifically, it discusses pure multi-pushdown automata that perform complete pushdown pops that are allowed to join two pushdowns and/or create a new pushdown

Randomization in Non-Uniform Finite Automata

The non-uniform version of Turing machines with an extra advice input tape that depends on the length of the input but not the input itself is a well-studied model in complexity theory. We investigate the same notion of non-uniformity in weaker models, namely one-way finite automata. In particular, we are interested in the power of two-sided bounded-error randomization, and how it compares to determinism and non-determinism. We show that for unlimited advice, randomization is strictly stronger than determinism, and strictly weaker than non-determinism. However, when the advice is restricted to polynomial length, the landscape changes: the expressive power of determinism and randomization does not change, but the power of non-determinism is reduced to the extent that it becomes incomparable with randomization

On Equivalence and Uniformisation Problems for Finite Transducers

Transductions are binary relations of finite words. For rational transductions, i.e., transductions defined by finite transducers, the inclusion, equivalence and sequential uniformisation problems are known to be undecidable. In this paper, we investigate stronger variants of inclusion, equivalence and sequential uniformisation, based on a general notion of transducer resynchronisation, and show their decidability. We also investigate the classes of finite-valued rational transductions and deterministic rational transductions, which are known to have a decidable equivalence problem. We show that sequential uniformisation is also decidable for them

Multi-Input Strictly Local Functions for Templatic Morphology

This paper presents an automata-theoretic characterization of templatic morphology. We generalize the Input Strictly Local class of functions, which characterize a majority of concatenative morphology, to consider multiple lexical inputs. We show that strictly local asynchronous multi-tape transducers successfully capture this typology of nonconcatenative template filling. This characterization and restriction uniquely opens up representational issues in morphological computatio