6,814 research outputs found
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
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
Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantum Computing
Recently a great deal of attention has focused on quantum computation
following a sequence of results suggesting that quantum computers are more
powerful than classical probabilistic computers. Following Shor's result that
factoring and the extraction of discrete logarithms are both solvable in
quantum polynomial time, it is natural to ask whether all of NP can be
efficiently solved in quantum polynomial time. In this paper, we address this
question by proving that relative to an oracle chosen uniformly at random, with
probability 1, the class NP cannot be solved on a quantum Turing machine in
time . We also show that relative to a permutation oracle chosen
uniformly at random, with probability 1, the class cannot be
solved on a quantum Turing machine in time . The former bound is
tight since recent work of Grover shows how to accept the class NP relative to
any oracle on a quantum computer in time .Comment: 18 pages, latex, no figures, to appear in SIAM Journal on Computing
(special issue on quantum computing
Bounded Counter Languages
We show that deterministic finite automata equipped with two-way heads
are equivalent to deterministic machines with a single two-way input head and
linearly bounded counters if the accepted language is strictly bounded,
i.e., a subset of for a fixed sequence of symbols . Then we investigate linear speed-up for counter machines. Lower
and upper time bounds for concrete recognition problems are shown, implying
that in general linear speed-up does not hold for counter machines. For bounded
languages we develop a technique for speeding up computations by any constant
factor at the expense of adding a fixed number of counters
Bounded Languages Meet Cellular Automata with Sparse Communication
Cellular automata are one-dimensional arrays of interconnected interacting
finite automata. We investigate one of the weakest classes, the real-time
one-way cellular automata, and impose an additional restriction on their
inter-cell communication by bounding the number of allowed uses of the links
between cells. Moreover, we consider the devices as acceptors for bounded
languages in order to explore the borderline at which non-trivial decidability
problems of cellular automata classes become decidable. It is shown that even
devices with drastically reduced communication, that is, each two neighboring
cells may communicate only constantly often, accept bounded languages that are
not semilinear. If the number of communications is at least logarithmic in the
length of the input, several problems are undecidable. The same result is
obtained for classes where the total number of communications during a
computation is linearly bounded
- …