3,602 research outputs found
Mean-payoff Automaton Expressions
Quantitative languages are an extension of boolean languages that assign to
each word a real number. Mean-payoff automata are finite automata with
numerical weights on transitions that assign to each infinite path the long-run
average of the transition weights. When the mode of branching of the automaton
is deterministic, nondeterministic, or alternating, the corresponding class of
quantitative languages is not robust as it is not closed under the pointwise
operations of max, min, sum, and numerical complement. Nondeterministic and
alternating mean-payoff automata are not decidable either, as the quantitative
generalization of the problems of universality and language inclusion is
undecidable.
We introduce a new class of quantitative languages, defined by mean-payoff
automaton expressions, which is robust and decidable: it is closed under the
four pointwise operations, and we show that all decision problems are decidable
for this class. Mean-payoff automaton expressions subsume deterministic
mean-payoff automata, and we show that they have expressive power incomparable
to nondeterministic and alternating mean-payoff automata. We also present for
the first time an algorithm to compute distance between two quantitative
languages, and in our case the quantitative languages are given as mean-payoff
automaton expressions
Automata with Nested Pebbles Capture First-Order Logic with Transitive Closure
String languages recognizable in (deterministic) log-space are characterized
either by two-way (deterministic) multi-head automata, or following Immerman,
by first-order logic with (deterministic) transitive closure. Here we elaborate
this result, and match the number of heads to the arity of the transitive
closure. More precisely, first-order logic with k-ary deterministic transitive
closure has the same power as deterministic automata walking on their input
with k heads, additionally using a finite set of nested pebbles. This result is
valid for strings, ordered trees, and in general for families of graphs having
a fixed automaton that can be used to traverse the nodes of each of the graphs
in the family. Other examples of such families are grids, toruses, and
rectangular mazes. For nondeterministic automata, the logic is restricted to
positive occurrences of transitive closure.
The special case of k=1 for trees, shows that single-head deterministic
tree-walking automata with nested pebbles are characterized by first-order
logic with unary deterministic transitive closure. This refines our earlier
result that placed these automata between first-order and monadic second-order
logic on trees.Comment: Paper for Logical Methods in Computer Science, 27 pages, 1 figur
History-Register Automata
Programs with dynamic allocation are able to create and use an unbounded
number of fresh resources, such as references, objects, files, etc. We propose
History-Register Automata (HRA), a new automata-theoretic formalism for
modelling such programs. HRAs extend the expressiveness of previous approaches
and bring us to the limits of decidability for reachability checks. The
distinctive feature of our machines is their use of unbounded memory sets
(histories) where input symbols can be selectively stored and compared with
symbols to follow. In addition, stored symbols can be consumed or deleted by
reset. We show that the combination of consumption and reset capabilities
renders the automata powerful enough to imitate counter machines, and yields
closure under all regular operations apart from complementation. We moreover
examine weaker notions of HRAs which strike different balances between
expressiveness and effectiveness.Comment: LMCS (improved version of FoSSaCS
Model-checking Quantitative Alternating-time Temporal Logic on One-counter Game Models
We consider quantitative extensions of the alternating-time temporal logics
ATL/ATLs called quantitative alternating-time temporal logics (QATL/QATLs) in
which the value of a counter can be compared to constants using equality,
inequality and modulo constraints. We interpret these logics in one-counter
game models which are infinite duration games played on finite control graphs
where each transition can increase or decrease the value of an unbounded
counter. That is, the state-space of these games are, generally, infinite. We
consider the model-checking problem of the logics QATL and QATLs on one-counter
game models with VASS semantics for which we develop algorithms and provide
matching lower bounds. Our algorithms are based on reductions of the
model-checking problems to model-checking games. This approach makes it quite
simple for us to deal with extensions of the logical languages as well as the
infinite state spaces. The framework generalizes on one hand qualitative
problems such as ATL/ATLs model-checking of finite-state systems,
model-checking of the branching-time temporal logics CTL and CTLs on
one-counter processes and the realizability problem of LTL specifications. On
the other hand the model-checking problem for QATL/QATLs generalizes
quantitative problems such as the fixed-initial credit problem for energy games
(in the case of QATL) and energy parity games (in the case of QATLs). Our
results are positive as we show that the generalizations are not too costly
with respect to complexity. As a byproduct we obtain new results on the
complexity of model-checking CTLs in one-counter processes and show that
deciding the winner in one-counter games with LTL objectives is
2ExpSpace-complete.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
Complexity of Two-Dimensional Patterns
In dynamical systems such as cellular automata and iterated maps, it is often
useful to look at a language or set of symbol sequences produced by the system.
There are well-established classification schemes, such as the Chomsky
hierarchy, with which we can measure the complexity of these sets of sequences,
and thus the complexity of the systems which produce them.
In this paper, we look at the first few levels of a hierarchy of complexity
for two-or-more-dimensional patterns. We show that several definitions of
``regular language'' or ``local rule'' that are equivalent in d=1 lead to
distinct classes in d >= 2. We explore the closure properties and computational
complexity of these classes, including undecidability and L-, NL- and
NP-completeness results.
We apply these classes to cellular automata, in particular to their sets of
fixed and periodic points, finite-time images, and limit sets. We show that it
is undecidable whether a CA in d >= 2 has a periodic point of a given period,
and that certain ``local lattice languages'' are not finite-time images or
limit sets of any CA. We also show that the entropy of a d-dimensional CA's
finite-time image cannot decrease faster than t^{-d} unless it maps every
initial condition to a single homogeneous state.Comment: To appear in J. Stat. Phy
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