34 research outputs found
Trading Determinism for Time in Space Bounded Computations
Savitch showed in that nondeterministic logspace (NL) is contained in
deterministic space but his algorithm requires
quasipolynomial time. The question whether we can have a deterministic
algorithm for every problem in NL that requires polylogarithmic space and
simultaneously runs in polynomial time was left open.
In this paper we give a partial solution to this problem and show that for
every language in NL there exists an unambiguous nondeterministic algorithm
that requires space and simultaneously runs in
polynomial time.Comment: Accepted in MFCS 201
Derandomizing Isolation in Space-Bounded Settings
We study the possibility of deterministic and randomness-efficient isolation in space-bounded models of computation: Can one efficiently reduce instances of computational problems to equivalent instances that have at most one solution? We present results for the NL-complete problem of reachability on digraphs, and for the LogCFL-complete problem of certifying acceptance on shallow semi-unbounded circuits.
A common approach employs small weight assignments that make the solution of minimum weight unique. The Isolation Lemma and other known procedures use Omega(n) random bits to generate weights of individual bitlength O(log(n)). We develop a derandomized version for both settings that uses O(log(n)^{3/2}) random bits and produces weights of bitlength O(log(n)^{3/2}) in logarithmic space. The construction allows us to show that every language in NL can be accepted by a nondeterministic machine that runs in polynomial time and O(log(n)^{3/2}) space, and has at most one accepting computation path on every input. Similarly, every language in LogCFL can be accepted by a nondeterministic machine equipped with a stack that does not count towards the space bound, that runs in polynomial time and O(log(n)^{3/2}) space, and has at most one accepting computation path on every input.
We also show that the existence of somewhat more restricted isolations for reachability on digraphs implies that NL can be decided in logspace with polynomial advice. A similar result holds for certifying acceptance on shallow semi-unbounded circuits and LogCFL
The Containment Problem for Unambiguous Register Automata
We investigate the complexity of the containment problem "Does L(A)subseteq L(B) hold?", where B is an unambiguous register automaton and A is an arbitrary register automaton. We prove that the problem is decidable and give upper bounds on the computational complexity in the general case, and when B is restricted to have a fixed number of registers
Randomized Search of Graphs in Log Space and Probabilistic Computation
Reingold has shown that L = SL, that s-t connectivity in a poly-mixing digraph is complete for promise-RL, and that s-t connectivity for a poly-mixing out-regular digraph with known stationary distribution is in L. Several properties that bound the mixing times of random walks on digraphs have been identified, including the digraph conductance and the digraph spectral expansion. However, rapidly mixing digraphs can still have exponential cover time, thus it is important to specifically identify structural properties of digraphs that effect cover times. We examine the complexity of random walks on a basic parameterized family of unbalanced digraphs called Strong Chains (which model weakly symmetric logspace computations), and a special family of Strong Chains called Harps. We show that the worst case hitting times of Strong Chain families vary smoothly with the number of asymmetric vertices and identify the necessary condition for non-polynomial cover time. This analysis also yields bounds on the cover times of general digraphs.
Next we relate random walks on graphs to the random walks that arise in Monte Carlo methods applied to optimization problems. We introduce the notion of the asymmetric states of Markov chains and use this definition to obtain some results about Markov chains. We also obtain some results on the mixing times for Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods.
Finally, we consider the question of whether a single long random walk or many short walks is a better strategy for exploration. These are walks which reset to the start after a fixed number of steps. We exhibit digraph families for which a few short walks are far superior to a single long walk. We introduce an iterative deepening random search. We use this strategy estimate the cover time for poly-mixing subgraphs. Finally we discuss complexity theoretic implications and future work
Minimizing Tree Automata for Unranked Trees
International audienceAutomata for unranked trees form a foundation for XML schemas, querying and pattern languages. We study the problem of efficiently minimizing such automata. We start with the unranked tree automata (UTAs) that are standard in database theory, assuming bottom-up determinism and that horizontal recursion is represented by deterministic finite automata. We show that minimal UTAs in that class are not unique and that minimization is NP-hard. We then study more recent automata classes that do allow for polynomial time minimization. Among those, we show that bottom-up deterministic stepwise tree automata yield the most succinct representations
Games for Active XML Revisited
The paper studies the rewriting mechanisms for intensional documents in the
Active XML framework, abstracted in the form of active context-free games. The
safe rewriting problem studied in this paper is to decide whether the first
player, Juliet, has a winning strategy for a given game and (nested) word; this
corresponds to a successful rewriting strategy for a given intensional
document. The paper examines several extensions to active context-free games.
The primary extension allows more expressive schemas (namely XML schemas and
regular nested word languages) for both target and replacement languages and
has the effect that games are played on nested words instead of (flat) words as
in previous studies. Other extensions consider validation of input parameters
of web services, and an alternative semantics based on insertion of service
call results.
In general, the complexity of the safe rewriting problem is highly
intractable (doubly exponential time), but the paper identifies interesting
tractable cases.Comment: To be published in ICDT 201