Separating Regular Languages with First-Order Logic

Given two languages, a separator is a third language that contains the first one and is disjoint from the second one. We investigate the following decision problem: given two regular input languages of finite words, decide whether there exists a first-order definable separator. We prove that in order to answer this question, sufficient information can be extracted from semigroups recognizing the input languages, using a fixpoint computation. This yields an EXPTIME algorithm for checking first-order separability. Moreover, the correctness proof of this algorithm yields a stronger result, namely a description of a possible separator. Finally, we generalize this technique to answer the same question for regular languages of infinite words

On Varieties of Automata Enriched with an Algebraic Structure (Extended Abstract)

Eilenberg correspondence, based on the concept of syntactic monoids, relates varieties of regular languages with pseudovarieties of finite monoids. Various modifications of this correspondence related more general classes of regular languages with classes of more complex algebraic objects. Such generalized varieties also have natural counterparts formed by classes of finite automata equipped with a certain additional algebraic structure. In this survey, we overview several variants of such varieties of enriched automata.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527

A Characterization for Decidable Separability by Piecewise Testable Languages

The separability problem for word languages of a class $\mathcal{C}$ by languages of a class $\mathcal{S}$ asks, for two given languages $I$ and $E$ from $\mathcal{C}$, whether there exists a language $S$ from $\mathcal{S}$ that includes $I$ and excludes $E$, that is, $I \subseteq S$ and $S\cap E = \emptyset$. In this work, we assume some mild closure properties for $\mathcal{C}$ and study for which such classes separability by a piecewise testable language (PTL) is decidable. We characterize these classes in terms of decidability of (two variants of) an unboundedness problem. From this, we deduce that separability by PTL is decidable for a number of language classes, such as the context-free languages and languages of labeled vector addition systems. Furthermore, it follows that separability by PTL is decidable if and only if one can compute for any language of the class its downward closure wrt. the scattered substring ordering (i.e., if the set of scattered substrings of any language of the class is effectively regular). The obtained decidability results contrast some undecidability results. In fact, for all (non-regular) language classes that we present as examples with decidable separability, it is undecidable whether a given language is a PTL itself. Our characterization involves a result of independent interest, which states that for any kind of languages $I$ and $E$, non-separability by PTL is equivalent to the existence of common patterns in $I$ and $E$

Recognizing pro-R closures of regular languages

Given a regular language L, we effectively construct a unary semigroup that recognizes the topological closure of L in the free unary semigroup relative to the variety of unary semigroups generated by the pseudovariety R of all finite R-trivial semigroups. In particular, we obtain a new effective solution of the separation problem of regular languages by R-languages

Factoriality and the pin-reutenauer procedure

We consider implicit signatures over finite semigroups determined by sets of pseudonatural numbers. We prove that, under relatively simple hypotheses on a pseudovariety V of semigroups, the finitely generated free algebra for the largest such signature is closed under taking factors within the free pro-V semigroup on the same set of generators. Furthermore, we show that the natural analogue of the Pin-Reutenauer descriptive procedure for the closure of a rational language in the free group with respect to the profinite topology holds for the pseudovariety of all finite semigroups. As an application, we establish that a pseudovariety enjoys this property if and only if it is full.European structural funds (FEDER)European Regional Development Fund, through the program COMPET

Reducibility of pointlike problems

We show that the pointlike and the idempotent pointlike problems are reducible with respect to natural signatures in the following cases: the pseudovariety of all fi nite semigroups in which the order of every subgroup is a product of elements of a fi xed set of primes; the pseudovariety of all fi nite semigroups in which every regular J-class is the product of a rectangular band by a group from a fixed pseudovariety of groups that is reducible for the pointlike problem, respectively graph reducible. Allowing only trivial groups, we obtain omega-reducibility of the pointlike and idempotent pointlike problems, respectively for the pseudovarieties of all finite aperiodic semigroups (A) and of all finite semigroups in which all regular elements are idempotents (DA).ANR 2010 BLAN 0202 01 FRE

The omega-inequality problem for concatenation hierarchies of star-free languages

The problem considered in this paper is whether an inequality of omega-terms is valid in a given level of a concatenation hierarchy of star-free languages. The main result shows that this problem is decidable for all (integer and half) levels of the Straubing-Th\'erien hierarchy