Revisiting Synthesis for One-Counter Automata

We study the (parameter) synthesis problem for one-counter automata with parameters. One-counter automata are obtained by extending classical finite-state automata with a counter whose value can range over non-negative integers and be tested for zero. The updates and tests applicable to the counter can further be made parametric by introducing a set of integer-valued variables called parameters. The synthesis problem for such automata asks whether there exists a valuation of the parameters such that all infinite runs of the automaton satisfy some omega-regular property. Lechner showed that (the complement of) the problem can be encoded in a restricted one-alternation fragment of Presburger arithmetic with divisibility. In this work (i) we argue that said fragment, called AERPADPLUS, is unfortunately undecidable. Nevertheless, by a careful re-encoding of the problem into a decidable restriction of AERPADPLUS, (ii) we prove that the synthesis problem is decidable in general and in N2EXP for several fixed omega-regular properties. Finally, (iii) we give a polynomial-space algorithm for the special case of the problem where parameters can only be used in tests, and not updates, of the counter

The ideal view on Rackoff's coverability technique

Rackoff’s small witness property for the coverability problem is the standard means to prove tight upper bounds in vector addition systems (VAS) and many extensions. We show how to derive the same bounds directly on the computations of the VAS instantiation of the generic backward coverability algorithm. This relies on a dual view of the algorithm using ideal decompositions of downwards-closed sets, which exhibits a key structural invariant in the VAS case. The same reasoning readily generalises to several VAS extensions

Revisiting Parameter Synthesis for One-Counter Automata

We study the synthesis problem for one-counter automata with parameters. One-counter automata are obtained by extending classical finite-state automata with a counter whose value can range over non-negative integers and be tested for zero. The updates and tests applicable to the counter can further be made parametric by introducing a set of integer-valued variables called parameters. The synthesis problem for such automata asks whether there exists a valuation of the parameters such that all infinite runs of the automaton satisfy some ?-regular property. Lechner showed that (the complement of) the problem can be encoded in a restricted one-alternation fragment of Presburger arithmetic with divisibility. In this work (i) we argue that said fragment, called ??_RPAD^+, is unfortunately undecidable. Nevertheless, by a careful re-encoding of the problem into a decidable restriction of ??_RPAD^+, (ii) we prove that the synthesis problem is decidable in general and in 2NEXP for several fixed ?-regular properties. Finally, (iii) we give polynomial-space algorithms for the special cases of the problem where parameters can only be used in counter tests

Automatically Proving and Disproving Feasibility Conditions

[EN] In the realm of term rewriting, given terms s and t, a reachability condition s>>t is called feasible if there is a substitution O such that O(s) rewrites into O(t) in zero or more steps; otherwise, it is called infeasible. Checking infeasibility of (sequences of) reachability conditions is important in the analysis of computational properties of rewrite systems like confluence or (operational) termination. In this paper, we generalize this notion of feasibility to arbitrary n-ary relations on terms defined by first-order theories. In this way, properties of computational systems whose operational semantics can be given as a first-order theory can be investigated. We introduce a framework for proving feasibility/infeasibility, and a new tool, infChecker, which implements it.Supported by EU (FEDER), and projects RTI2018-094403-B-C32, PROMETEO/2019/098, and SP20180225. Also by INCIBE program "Ayudas para la excelencia de los equipos de investigación avanzada en ciberseguridad" (Raul Gutiérrez).Gutiérrez Gil, R.; Lucas Alba, S. (2020). Automatically Proving and Disproving Feasibility Conditions. Springer Nature. 416-435. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51054-1_27S416435Andrianarivelo, N., Réty, P.: Over-approximating terms reachable by context-sensitive rewriting. In: Bojańczyk, M., Lasota, S., Potapov, I. (eds.) RP 2015. LNCS, vol. 9328, pp. 128–139. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24537-9_12Dershowitz, N.: Termination of rewriting. J. Symb. Comput. 3(1/2), 69–116 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0747-7171(87)80022-6Giesl, J., Thiemann, R., Schneider-Kamp, P., Falke, S.: Mechanizing and improving dependency pairs. J. Autom. Reasoning 37(3), 155–203 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10817-006-9057-7Goguen, J.A., Meseguer, J.: Models and equality for logical programming. In: Ehrig, H., Kowalski, R., Levi, G., Montanari, U. (eds.) TAPSOFT 1987. LNCS, vol. 250, pp. 1–22. Springer, Heidelberg (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0014969Gutiérrez, R., Lucas, S.: Automatic generation of logical models with AGES. In: Fontaine, P. (ed.) CADE 2019. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 11716, pp. 287–299. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29436-6_17Kojima, Y., Sakai, M.: Innermost reachability and context sensitive reachability properties are decidable for linear right-shallow term rewriting systems. In: Voronkov, A. (ed.) RTA 2008. LNCS, vol. 5117, pp. 187–201. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70590-1_13Kojima, Y., Sakai, M., Nishida, N., Kusakari, K., Sakabe, T.: Context-sensitive innermost reachability is decidable for linear right-shallow term rewriting systems. Inf. Media Technol. 4(4), 802–814 (2009)Kojima, Y., Sakai, M., Nishida, N., Kusakari, K., Sakabe, T.: Decidability of reachability for right-shallow context-sensitive term rewriting systems. IPSJ Online Trans. 4, 192–216 (2011)Lucas, S.: Analysis of rewriting-based systems as first-order theories. In: Fioravanti, F., Gallagher, J.P. (eds.) LOPSTR 2017. LNCS, vol. 10855, pp. 180–197. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94460-9_11Lucas, S.: Context-sensitive computations in functional and functional logic programs. J. Funct. Logic Program. 1998(1) (1998). http://danae.uni-muenster.de/lehre/kuchen/JFLP/articles/1998/A98-01/A98-01.htmlLucas, S.: Proving semantic properties as first-order satisfiability. Artif. Intell. 277 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2019.103174Lucas, S.: Using well-founded relations for proving operational termination. J. Autom. Reasoning 64(2), 167–195 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10817-019-09514-2Lucas, S., Gutiérrez, R.: Use of logical models for proving infeasibility in term rewriting. Inf. Process. Lett. 136, 90–95 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipl.2018.04.002Lucas, S., Marché, C., Meseguer, J.: Operational termination of conditional term rewriting systems. Inf. Process. Lett. 95(4), 446–453 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipl.2005.05.002Lucas, S., Meseguer, J.: Proving operational termination of declarative programs in general logics. In: Chitil, O., King, A., Danvy, O. (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming, Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom, 8–10 September 2014, pp. 111–122. ACM (2014). https://doi.org/10.1145/2643135.2643152Lucas, S., Meseguer, J., Gutiérrez, R.: The 2D dependency pair framework for conditional rewrite systems. Part I: definition and basic processors. J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 96, 74–106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcss.2018.04.002Lucas, S., Meseguer, J., Gutiérrez, R.: The 2D dependency pair framework for conditional rewrite systems—Part II: advanced processors and implementation techniques. J. Autom. Reasoning (2020, in press)McCune, W.: Prover9 and Mace4. https://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/mace4/Meßner, F., Sternagel, C.: nonreach – a tool for nonreachability analysis. In: Vojnar, T., Zhang, L. (eds.) TACAS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11427, pp. 337–343. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17462-0_19Middeldorp, A., Nagele, J., Shintani, K.: Confluence competition 2019. In: Beyer, D., Huisman, M., Kordon, F., Steffen, B. (eds.) TACAS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11429, pp. 25–40. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17502-3_2Nishida, N., Maeda, Y.: Narrowing trees for syntactically deterministic conditional term rewriting systems. In: Kirchner, H. (ed.) Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction. FSCD 2018. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), vol. 108, pp. 26:1–26:20. Schloss Dagstuhl-Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik (2018). https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSCD.2018.26Ohlebusch, E.: Advanced Topics in Term Rewriting. Springer, Heidelberg (2002). http://www.springer.com/computer/swe/book/978-0-387-95250-5Prawitz, D.: Natural Deduction: A Proof-Theoretical Study. Dover, New York (2006)Sternagel, C., Sternagel, T., Middeldorp, A.: CoCo 2018 Participant: ConCon 1.5. In: Felgenhauer, B., Simonsen, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Confluence. IWC 2018, p. 66 (2018). http://cl-informatik.uibk.ac.at/events/iwc-2018/Sternagel, C., Yamada, A.: Reachability analysis for termination and confluence of rewriting. In: Vojnar, T., Zhang, L. (eds.) TACAS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11427, pp. 262–278. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17462-0_15Winkler, S., Moser, G.: MædMax: a maximal ordered completion tool. In: Galmiche, D., Schulz, S., Sebastiani, R. (eds.) IJCAR 2018. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 10900, pp. 472–480. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94205-6_3

Life Is Random, Time Is Not: Markov Decision Processes with Window Objectives

The window mechanism was introduced by Chatterjee et al. [Krishnendu Chatterjee et al., 2015] to strengthen classical game objectives with time bounds. It permits to synthesize system controllers that exhibit acceptable behaviors within a configurable time frame, all along their infinite execution, in contrast to the traditional objectives that only require correctness of behaviors in the limit. The window concept has proved its interest in a variety of two-player zero-sum games, thanks to the ability to reason about such time bounds in system specifications, but also the increased tractability that it usually yields. In this work, we extend the window framework to stochastic environments by considering the fundamental threshold probability problem in Markov decision processes for window objectives. That is, given such an objective, we want to synthesize strategies that guarantee satisfying runs with a given probability. We solve this problem for the usual variants of window objectives, where either the time frame is set as a parameter, or we ask if such a time frame exists. We develop a generic approach for window-based objectives and instantiate it for the classical mean-payoff and parity objectives, already considered in games. Our work paves the way to a wide use of the window mechanism in stochastic models

On the Boundedness Problem for Higher-Order Pushdown Vector Addition Systems

International audienceKarp and Miller's algorithm is a well-known decision procedure that solves the termination and boundedness problems for vector addition systems with states (VASS), or equivalently Petri nets. This procedure was later extended to a general class of models, well-structured transition systems, and, more recently, to pushdown VASS. In this paper, we extend pushdown VASS to higher-order pushdown VASS (called HOPVASS), and we investigate whether an approach à la Karp and Miller can still be used to solve termination and boundedness.We provide a decidable characterisation of runs that can be iterated arbitrarily many times, which is the main ingredient of Karp and Miller's approach. However, the resulting Karp and Miller procedure only gives a semi-algorithm for HOPVASS. In fact, we show that coverability, termination and boundedness are all undecidable for HOPVASS, even in the restricted subcase of one counter and an order 2 stack. On the bright side, we prove that this semi-algorithm is in fact an algorithm for higher-order pushdown automata

On Boundedness Problems for Pushdown Vector Addition Systems

We study pushdown vector addition systems, which are synchronized products of pushdown automata with vector addition systems. The question of the boundedness of the reachability set for this model can be refined into two decision problems that ask if infinitely many counter values or stack configurations are reachable, respectively. Counter boundedness seems to be the more intricate problem. We show decidability in exponential time for one-dimensional systems. The proof is via a small witness property derived from an analysis of derivation trees of grammar-controlled vector addition systems