On Recognizable Languages of Infinite Pictures

An erratum is added at the end of the paper: The supremum of the set of Borel ranks of Büchi recognizable languages of infinite pictures is not the first non recursive ordinal $\omega_1^{CK}$ but an ordinal $\gamma^1_2$ which is strictly greater than the ordinal $\omega_1^{CK}$. This follows from a result proved by Kechris, Marker and Sami (JSL 1989).International audienceIn a recent paper, Altenbernd, Thomas and Wöhrle have considered acceptance of languages of infinite two-dimensional words (infinite pictures) by finite tiling systems, with the usual acceptance conditions, such as the Büchi and Muller ones, firstly used for infinite words. The authors asked for comparing the tiling system acceptance with an acceptance of pictures row by row using an automaton model over ordinal words of length $\omega^2$. We give in this paper a solution to this problem, showing that all languages of infinite pictures which are accepted row by row by Büchi or Choueka automata reading words of length $\omega^2$ are Büchi recognized by a finite tiling system, but the converse is not true. We give also the answer to two other questions which were raised by Altenbernd, Thomas and Wöhrle, showing that it is undecidable whether a Büchi recognizable language of infinite pictures is E-recognizable (respectively, A-recognizable)

Highly Undecidable Problems about Recognizability by Tiling Systems

to appear in a Special Issue of the journal Fundamenta Informaticae on Machines, Computations and Universality.International audienceAltenbernd, Thomas and Wöhrle have considered acceptance of languages of infinite two-dimensional words (infinite pictures) by finite tiling systems, with usual acceptance conditions, such as the Büchi and Muller ones [1]. It was proved in [9] that it is undecidable whether a Büchi-recognizable language of infinite pictures is E-recognizable (respectively, A-recognizable). We show here that these two decision problems are actually $\Pi_2^1$-complete, hence located at the second level of the analytical hierarchy, and ``highly undecidable". We give the exact degree of numerous other undecidable problems for Büchi-recognizable languages of infinite pictures. In particular, the non-emptiness and the infiniteness problems are $\Sigma^1_1$-complete, and the universality problem, the inclusion problem, the equivalence problem, the determinizability problem, the complementability problem, are all $\Pi^1_2$-complete. It is also $\Pi^1_2$-complete to determine whether a given Büchi recognizable language of infinite pictures can be accepted row by row using an automaton model over ordinal words of length $\omega^2$

The Complexity of Infinite Computations In Models of Set Theory

We prove the following surprising result: there exist a 1-counter B\"uchi automaton and a 2-tape B\"uchi automaton such that the \omega-language of the first and the infinitary rational relation of the second in one model of ZFC are \pi_2^0-sets, while in a different model of ZFC both are analytic but non Borel sets. This shows that the topological complexity of an \omega-language accepted by a 1-counter B\"uchi automaton or of an infinitary rational relation accepted by a 2-tape B\"uchi automaton is not determined by the axiomatic system ZFC. We show that a similar result holds for the class of languages of infinite pictures which are recognized by B\"uchi tiling systems. We infer from the proof of the above results an improvement of the lower bound of some decision problems recently studied by the author

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

Highly Undecidable Problems For Infinite Computations

We show that many classical decision problems about 1-counter omega-languages, context free omega-languages, or infinitary rational relations, are $\Pi_2^1$-complete, hence located at the second level of the analytical hierarchy, and "highly undecidable". In particular, the universality problem, the inclusion problem, the equivalence problem, the determinizability problem, the complementability problem, and the unambiguity problem are all $\Pi_2^1$-complete for context-free omega-languages or for infinitary rational relations. Topological and arithmetical properties of 1-counter omega-languages, context free omega-languages, or infinitary rational relations, are also highly undecidable. These very surprising results provide the first examples of highly undecidable problems about the behaviour of very simple finite machines like 1-counter automata or 2-tape automata.Comment: to appear in RAIRO-Theoretical Informatics and Application

Weighted Automata and Logics on Hierarchical Structures and Graphs

Formal language theory, originally developed to model and study our natural spoken languages, is nowadays also put to use in many other fields. These include, but are not limited to, the definition and visualization of programming languages and the examination and verification of algorithms and systems. Formal languages are instrumental in proving the correct behavior of automated systems, e.g., to avoid that a flight guidance system navigates two airplanes too close to each other. This vast field of applications is built upon a very well investigated and coherent theoretical basis. It is the goal of this dissertation to add to this theoretical foundation and to explore ways to make formal languages and their models more expressive. More specifically, we are interested in models that are able to model quantitative features of the behavior of systems. To this end, we define and characterize weighted automata over structures with hierarchical information and over graphs. In particular, we study infinite nested words, operator precedence languages, and finite and infinite graphs. We show Büchi-like results connecting weighted automata and weighted monadic second order (MSO) logic for the respective classes of weighted languages over these structures. As special cases, we obtain Büchi-type equivalence results known from the recent literature for weighted automata and weighted logics on words, trees, pictures, and nested words. Establishing such a general result for graphs has been an open problem for weighted logics for some time. We conjecture that our techniques can be applied to derive similar equivalence results in other contexts like traces, texts, and distributed systems

Perfectly quilted rectangular snake tilings

AbstractWe introduce a particular form of snake tilings to define picture languages, and relate the obtained family to the recognizable picture languages (as defined by Wang tiles). The correspondence for substitution tilings is even closer, and hence is applicable to the Hilbert curve