853 research outputs found
One-Tape Turing Machine Variants and Language Recognition
We present two restricted versions of one-tape Turing machines. Both
characterize the class of context-free languages. In the first version,
proposed by Hibbard in 1967 and called limited automata, each tape cell can be
rewritten only in the first visits, for a fixed constant .
Furthermore, for deterministic limited automata are equivalent to
deterministic pushdown automata, namely they characterize deterministic
context-free languages. Further restricting the possible operations, we
consider strongly limited automata. These models still characterize
context-free languages. However, the deterministic version is less powerful
than the deterministic version of limited automata. In fact, there exist
deterministic context-free languages that are not accepted by any deterministic
strongly limited automaton.Comment: 20 pages. This article will appear in the Complexity Theory Column of
the September 2015 issue of SIGACT New
Finite state verifiers with constant randomness
We give a new characterization of as the class of languages
whose members have certificates that can be verified with small error in
polynomial time by finite state machines that use a constant number of random
bits, as opposed to its conventional description in terms of deterministic
logarithmic-space verifiers. It turns out that allowing two-way interaction
with the prover does not change the class of verifiable languages, and that no
polynomially bounded amount of randomness is useful for constant-memory
computers when used as language recognizers, or public-coin verifiers. A
corollary of our main result is that the class of outcome problems
corresponding to O(log n)-space bounded games of incomplete information where
the universal player is allowed a constant number of moves equals NL.Comment: 17 pages. An improved versio
Real-Time Vector Automata
We study the computational power of real-time finite automata that have been
augmented with a vector of dimension k, and programmed to multiply this vector
at each step by an appropriately selected matrix. Only one entry
of the vector can be tested for equality to 1 at any time. Classes of languages
recognized by deterministic, nondeterministic, and "blind" versions of these
machines are studied and compared with each other, and the associated classes
for multicounter automata, automata with multiplication, and generalized finite
automata.Comment: 14 page
Completeness Results for Parameterized Space Classes
The parameterized complexity of a problem is considered "settled" once it has
been shown to lie in FPT or to be complete for a class in the W-hierarchy or a
similar parameterized hierarchy. Several natural parameterized problems have,
however, resisted such a classification. At least in some cases, the reason is
that upper and lower bounds for their parameterized space complexity have
recently been obtained that rule out completeness results for parameterized
time classes. In this paper, we make progress in this direction by proving that
the associative generability problem and the longest common subsequence problem
are complete for parameterized space classes. These classes are defined in
terms of different forms of bounded nondeterminism and in terms of simultaneous
time--space bounds. As a technical tool we introduce a "union operation" that
translates between problems complete for classical complexity classes and for
W-classes.Comment: IPEC 201
Two-Way Automata Making Choices Only at the Endmarkers
The question of the state-size cost for simulation of two-way
nondeterministic automata (2NFAs) by two-way deterministic automata (2DFAs) was
raised in 1978 and, despite many attempts, it is still open. Subsequently, the
problem was attacked by restricting the power of 2DFAs (e.g., using a
restricted input head movement) to the degree for which it was already possible
to derive some exponential gaps between the weaker model and the standard
2NFAs. Here we use an opposite approach, increasing the power of 2DFAs to the
degree for which it is still possible to obtain a subexponential conversion
from the stronger model to the standard 2DFAs. In particular, it turns out that
subexponential conversion is possible for two-way automata that make
nondeterministic choices only when the input head scans one of the input tape
endmarkers. However, there is no restriction on the input head movement. This
implies that an exponential gap between 2NFAs and 2DFAs can be obtained only
for unrestricted 2NFAs using capabilities beyond the proposed new model. As an
additional bonus, conversion into a machine for the complement of the original
language is polynomial in this model. The same holds for making such machines
self-verifying, halting, or unambiguous. Finally, any superpolynomial lower
bound for the simulation of such machines by standard 2DFAs would imply LNL.
In the same way, the alternating version of these machines is related to L =?
NL =? P, the classical computational complexity problems.Comment: 23 page
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