3,476 research outputs found
A Characterization for Decidable Separability by Piecewise Testable Languages
The separability problem for word languages of a class by
languages of a class asks, for two given languages and
from , whether there exists a language from that
includes and excludes , that is, and . In this work, we assume some mild closure properties for
and study for which such classes separability by a piecewise
testable language (PTL) is decidable. We characterize these classes in terms of
decidability of (two variants of) an unboundedness problem. From this, we
deduce that separability by PTL is decidable for a number of language classes,
such as the context-free languages and languages of labeled vector addition
systems. Furthermore, it follows that separability by PTL is decidable if and
only if one can compute for any language of the class its downward closure wrt.
the scattered substring ordering (i.e., if the set of scattered substrings of
any language of the class is effectively regular).
The obtained decidability results contrast some undecidability results. In
fact, for all (non-regular) language classes that we present as examples with
decidable separability, it is undecidable whether a given language is a PTL
itself.
Our characterization involves a result of independent interest, which states
that for any kind of languages and , non-separability by PTL is
equivalent to the existence of common patterns in and
On Measuring Non-Recursive Trade-Offs
We investigate the phenomenon of non-recursive trade-offs between
descriptional systems in an abstract fashion. We aim at categorizing
non-recursive trade-offs by bounds on their growth rate, and show how to deduce
such bounds in general. We also identify criteria which, in the spirit of
abstract language theory, allow us to deduce non-recursive tradeoffs from
effective closure properties of language families on the one hand, and
differences in the decidability status of basic decision problems on the other.
We develop a qualitative classification of non-recursive trade-offs in order to
obtain a better understanding of this very fundamental behaviour of
descriptional systems
On the rational subset problem for groups
We use language theory to study the rational subset problem for groups and
monoids. We show that the decidability of this problem is preserved under graph
of groups constructions with finite edge groups. In particular, it passes
through free products amalgamated over finite subgroups and HNN extensions with
finite associated subgroups. We provide a simple proof of a result of
Grunschlag showing that the decidability of this problem is a virtual property.
We prove further that the problem is decidable for a direct product of a group
G with a monoid M if and only if membership is uniformly decidable for
G-automata subsets of M. It follows that a direct product of a free group with
any abelian group or commutative monoid has decidable rational subset
membership.Comment: 19 page
Decision Problems for Deterministic Pushdown Automata on Infinite Words
The article surveys some decidability results for DPDAs on infinite words
(omega-DPDA). We summarize some recent results on the decidability of the
regularity and the equivalence problem for the class of weak omega-DPDAs.
Furthermore, we present some new results on the parity index problem for
omega-DPDAs. For the specification of a parity condition, the states of the
omega-DPDA are assigned priorities (natural numbers), and a run is accepting if
the highest priority that appears infinitely often during a run is even. The
basic simplification question asks whether one can determine the minimal number
of priorities that are needed to accept the language of a given omega-DPDA. We
provide some decidability results on variations of this question for some
classes of omega-DPDAs.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527
Multi-Head Finite Automata: Characterizations, Concepts and Open Problems
Multi-head finite automata were introduced in (Rabin, 1964) and (Rosenberg,
1966). Since that time, a vast literature on computational and descriptional
complexity issues on multi-head finite automata documenting the importance of
these devices has been developed. Although multi-head finite automata are a
simple concept, their computational behavior can be already very complex and
leads to undecidable or even non-semi-decidable problems on these devices such
as, for example, emptiness, finiteness, universality, equivalence, etc. These
strong negative results trigger the study of subclasses and alternative
characterizations of multi-head finite automata for a better understanding of
the nature of non-recursive trade-offs and, thus, the borderline between
decidable and undecidable problems. In the present paper, we tour a fragment of
this literature
Logical and Algebraic Characterizations of Rational Transductions
Rational word languages can be defined by several equivalent means: finite
state automata, rational expressions, finite congruences, or monadic
second-order (MSO) logic. The robust subclass of aperiodic languages is defined
by: counter-free automata, star-free expressions, aperiodic (finite)
congruences, or first-order (FO) logic. In particular, their algebraic
characterization by aperiodic congruences allows to decide whether a regular
language is aperiodic.
We lift this decidability result to rational transductions, i.e.,
word-to-word functions defined by finite state transducers. In this context,
logical and algebraic characterizations have also been proposed. Our main
result is that one can decide if a rational transduction (given as a
transducer) is in a given decidable congruence class. We also establish a
transfer result from logic-algebra equivalences over languages to equivalences
over transductions. As a consequence, it is decidable if a rational
transduction is first-order definable, and we show that this problem is
PSPACE-complete
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