Threshold nets and cell-assemblies

Motivated by the cell-assemblies theory of the brain, we propose a new formal model of threshold nets (TN). TN are patterned after Petri nets, with a very different firing rule, which removes all tokens upon firing of a transition. The generative power of threshold nets, with and without inhibition, is compared with traditional families of languages. Excitatory TN languages are included by the noncounting regular languages and form an infinite hierarchy for increasing values of threshold. Inhibitory nets are included by the context-sensitive languages. Two new net operators, motivated by the phenomena of growth, learning and brain damage are introduced and compared with Boolean operators

A Kleene theorem for Petri automata

While studying the equational theory of Kleene Allegories (KAl), we recently proposed two ways of defining sets of graphs [BP15]: from KAl expressions, that is, regular expressions with intersection and converse; and from a new automata model, Petri automata, based on safe Petri nets. To be able to compare the sets of graphs generated by KAl expressions, we explained how to construct Petri automata out of arbitrary KAl expressions. In the present paper, we describe a reverse transformation: recovering an expression from an automaton. This has several consequences. First, it generalises Kleene theorem: the graph languages specified by Petri automata are precisely the languages denoted by KAl expressions. Second, this entails that decidability of the equa-tional theory of Kleene Allegories is equivalent to that of language equivalence for Petri automata. Third, this transformation may be used to reason syntactically about the occurrence nets of a safe Petri net, provided they are parallel series

On the Upward/Downward Closures of Petri Nets

We study the size and the complexity of computing finite state automata (FSA) representing and approximating the downward and the upward closure of Petri net languages with coverability as the acceptance condition. We show how to construct an FSA recognizing the upward closure of a Petri net language in doubly-exponential time, and therefore the size is at most doubly exponential. For downward closures, we prove that the size of the minimal automata can be non-primitive recursive. In the case of BPP nets, a well-known subclass of Petri nets, we show that an FSA accepting the downward/upward closure can be constructed in exponential time. Furthermore, we consider the problem of checking whether a simple regular language is included in the downward/upward closure of a Petri net/BPP net language. We show that this problem is EXPSPACE-complete (resp. NP-complete) in the case of Petri nets (resp. BPP nets). Finally, we show that it is decidable whether a Petri net language is upward/downward closed

Regular Separability of Well-Structured Transition Systems

We investigate the languages recognized by well-structured transition systems (WSTS) with upward and downward compatibility. Our first result shows that, under very mild assumptions, every two disjoint WSTS languages are regular separable: There is a regular language containing one of them and being disjoint from the other. As a consequence, if a language as well as its complement are both recognized by WSTS, then they are necessarily regular. In particular, no subclass of WSTS languages beyond the regular languages is closed under complement. Our second result shows that for Petri nets, the complexity of the backwards coverability algorithm yields a bound on the size of the regular separator. We complement it by a lower bound construction

Polynomial Algorithms for the Synthesis of Bounded Nets

The so-called synthesis problem for nets, which consists in deciding whether a given graph is isomorphic to the case graph of some net, and then constructing the net, has been solved in the litterature for various types of nets, ranging from elementary nets to Petri nets. The common principle for the synthesis is the idea of regions in graphs, representing possible extensions of places in nets. However, no practical algorithm has been defined so far for the synthesis. We give here explicit algorithms solving in polynomial time the synthesis problem for bounded nets from regular languages or from finite automata

Regular Trace Event Structures

We propose trace event structures as a starting point for constructing effective branching time temporal logics in a non-interleaved setting. As a first step towards achieving this goal, we define the notion of a regular trace event structure. We then provide some simple characterizations of this notion of regularity both in terms of recognizable trace languages and in terms of finite 1-safe Petri nets

Petri net equivalence

Determining whether two Petri nets are equivalent is an interesting problem from both practical and theoretical standpoints. Although it is undecidable in the general case, for many interesting nets the equivalence problem is solvable. This paper explores, mostly from a theoretical point of view, some of the issues of Petri net equivalence, including both reachability sets and languages. Some new definitions of reachability set equivalence are described which allow the markings of some places to be treated identically or ignored, analogous to the Petri net languages in which multiple transitions may be labeled with the same symbol or with the empty string. The complexity of some decidable Petri net equivalence problems is analyzed

Decidability of Identity-free Relational Kleene Lattices

National audienceFamilies of binary relations are important interpretations of regular expressions, and the equivalence of two regular expressions with respect to their relational interpretations is decidable: the problem reduces to the equality of the denoted regular languages.Putting together a few results from the literature, we first make explicit a generalisation of this reduction, for regular expressions extended with converse and intersection: instead of considering sets of words (i.e., formal languages), one has to consider sets of directed and labelled graphs.We then focus on identity-free regular expressions with intersection—a setting where the above graphs are acyclic—and we show that the corresponding equational theory is decidable. We achieve this by defining an automaton model, based on Petri Nets, to recognise these sets of acyclic graphs, and by providing an algorithm to compare such automata

Wadge Degrees of ω\omega-Languages of Petri Nets

We prove that $\omega$-languages of (non-deterministic) Petri nets and $\omega$-languages of (non-deterministic) Turing machines have the same topological complexity: the Borel and Wadge hierarchies of the class of $\omega$-languages of (non-deterministic) Petri nets are equal to the Borel and Wadge hierarchies of the class of $\omega$-languages of (non-deterministic) Turing machines which also form the class of effective analytic sets. In particular, for each non-null recursive ordinal $\alpha < \omega\_1^{{\rm CK}}$ there exist some ${\bf \Sigma}^0\_\alpha$-complete and some ${\bf \Pi}^0\_\alpha$-complete $\omega$-languages of Petri nets, and the supremum of the set of Borel ranks of $\omega$-languages of Petri nets is the ordinal $\gamma\_2^1$, which is strictly greater than the first non-recursive ordinal $\omega\_1^{{\rm CK}}$. We also prove that there are some ${\bf \Sigma}\_1^1$-complete, hence non-Borel, $\omega$-languages of Petri nets, and that it is consistent with ZFC that there exist some $\omega$-languages of Petri nets which are neither Borel nor ${\bf \Sigma}\_1^1$-complete. This answers the question of the topological complexity of $\omega$-languages of (non-deterministic) Petri nets which was left open in [DFR14,FS14].Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0712.1359, arXiv:0804.326

A new approach for diagnosability analysis of Petri nets using Verifier Nets

In this paper, we analyze the diagnosability properties of labeled Petri nets. We consider the standard notion of diagnosability of languages, requiring that every occurrence of an unobservable fault event be eventually detected, as well as the stronger notion of diagnosability in K steps, where the detection must occur within a fixed bound of K event occurrences after the fault. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for these two notions of diagnosability for both bounded and unbounded Petri nets and then present an algorithmic technique for testing the conditions based on linear programming. Our approach is novel and based on the analysis of the reachability/coverability graph of a special Petri net, called Verifier Net, that is built from the Petri net model of the given system. In the case of systems that are diagnosable in K steps, we give a procedure to compute the bound K. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that necessary and sufficient conditions for diagnosability and diagnosability in K steps of labeled unbounded Petri nets are presented