Regulated rewriting in formal language theory

Thesis (MSc (Mathematical Sciences))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008.Context-free grammars are well-studied and well-behaved in terms of decidability, but many real-world problems cannot be described with context-free grammars. Grammars with regulated rewriting are grammars with mechanisms to regulate the applications of rules, so that certain derivations are avoided. Thus, with context-free rules and regulated rewriting mechanisms, one can often generate languages that are not context-free. In this thesis we study grammars with regulated rewriting mechanisms. We consider problems in which context-free grammars are insufficient and in which more descriptive grammars are required. We compare bag context grammars with other well-known classes of grammars with regulated rewriting mechanisms. We also discuss the relation between bag context grammars and recognizing devices such as counter automata and Petri net automata. We show that regular bag context grammars can generate any recursively enumerable language. We reformulate the pumping lemma for random permitting context languages with context-free rules, as introduced by Ewert and Van der Walt, by using the concept of a string homomorphism. We conclude the thesis with decidability and complexity properties of grammars with regulated rewriting

An approach to computing downward closures

The downward closure of a word language is the set of all (not necessarily contiguous) subwords of its members. It is well-known that the downward closure of any language is regular. While the downward closure appears to be a powerful abstraction, algorithms for computing a finite automaton for the downward closure of a given language have been established only for few language classes. This work presents a simple general method for computing downward closures. For language classes that are closed under rational transductions, it is shown that the computation of downward closures can be reduced to checking a certain unboundedness property. This result is used to prove that downward closures are computable for (i) every language class with effectively semilinear Parikh images that are closed under rational transductions, (ii) matrix languages, and (iii) indexed languages (equivalently, languages accepted by higher-order pushdown automata of order 2).Comment: Full version of contribution to ICALP 2015. Comments welcom

An algebraic characterization of some principal regulated rational cones

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to deal with formal power series over a commutative semiring A. Generalizing Wechler's pushdown automata and pushdown transition matrices yields a characterization of the A-semi-algebraic power series in terms of acceptance by pushdown automata. Principal regulated rational cones generated by cone generators of a certain form are characterized by algebraic systems given in certain matrix form. This yields a characterization of some principal full semi-AFL's in terms of context-free grammars. As an application of the theory, the principal regulated rational cone of one-counter “languages” is considered

One-Membrane P Systems with Activation and Blocking of Rules

We introduce new possibilities to control the application of rules based on the preceding applications, which can be de ned in a general way for (hierarchical) P systems and the main known derivation modes. Computational completeness can be obtained even for one-membrane P systems with non-cooperative rules and using both activation and blocking of rules, especially for the set modes of derivation. When we allow the application of rules to in uence the application of rules in previous derivation steps, applying a non-conservative semantics for what we consider to be a derivation step, we can even \go beyond Turing"

Regulated pushdown automata

The present paper suggests a new investigation area of the formal language theory — regulated automata. Specifically, it investigates pushdown automata that regulate the use of their rules by control languages. It proves that this regulation has no effect on the power of pushdown automata if the control languages are regular. However, the pushdown automata regulated by linear control languages characterize the family of recursively enumerable languages. All these results are established in terms of (A) acceptance by final state, (B) acceptance by empty pushdown, and (C) acceptance by final state and empty pushdown. In its conclusion, this paper formulates several open problems