12,101 research outputs found
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
Quantum computation with devices whose contents are never read
In classical computation, a "write-only memory" (WOM) is little more than an
oxymoron, and the addition of WOM to a (deterministic or probabilistic)
classical computer brings no advantage. We prove that quantum computers that
are augmented with WOM can solve problems that neither a classical computer
with WOM nor a quantum computer without WOM can solve, when all other resource
bounds are equal. We focus on realtime quantum finite automata, and examine the
increase in their power effected by the addition of WOMs with different access
modes and capacities. Some problems that are unsolvable by two-way
probabilistic Turing machines using sublogarithmic amounts of read/write memory
are shown to be solvable by these enhanced automata.Comment: 32 pages, a preliminary version of this work was presented in the 9th
International Conference on Unconventional Computation (UC2010
Complete Symmetry in D2L Systems and Cellular Automata
We introduce completely symmetric D2L systems and cellular automata by means of an additional restriction on the corresponding symmetric devices. Then we show that completely symmetric D2L systems and cellular automata are still able to simulate Turing machine computations. As corollaries we obtain new characterizations of the recursively enumerable languages and of some space-bounded complexity classes
Quantum counter automata
The question of whether quantum real-time one-counter automata (rtQ1CAs) can
outperform their probabilistic counterparts has been open for more than a
decade. We provide an affirmative answer to this question, by demonstrating a
non-context-free language that can be recognized with perfect soundness by a
rtQ1CA. This is the first demonstration of the superiority of a quantum model
to the corresponding classical one in the real-time case with an error bound
less than 1. We also introduce a generalization of the rtQ1CA, the quantum
one-way one-counter automaton (1Q1CA), and show that they too are superior to
the corresponding family of probabilistic machines. For this purpose, we
provide general definitions of these models that reflect the modern approach to
the definition of quantum finite automata, and point out some problems with
previous results. We identify several remaining open problems.Comment: A revised version. 16 pages. A preliminary version of this paper
appeared as A. C. Cem Say, Abuzer Yakary{\i}lmaz, and \c{S}efika
Y\"{u}zsever. Quantum one-way one-counter automata. In R\={u}si\c{n}\v{s}
Freivalds, editor, Randomized and quantum computation, pages 25--34, 2010
(Satellite workshop of MFCS and CSL 2010
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