1,440 research outputs found
Multi-Head Finite Automata: Characterizations, Concepts and Open Problems
Multi-head finite automata were introduced in (Rabin, 1964) and (Rosenberg,
1966). Since that time, a vast literature on computational and descriptional
complexity issues on multi-head finite automata documenting the importance of
these devices has been developed. Although multi-head finite automata are a
simple concept, their computational behavior can be already very complex and
leads to undecidable or even non-semi-decidable problems on these devices such
as, for example, emptiness, finiteness, universality, equivalence, etc. These
strong negative results trigger the study of subclasses and alternative
characterizations of multi-head finite automata for a better understanding of
the nature of non-recursive trade-offs and, thus, the borderline between
decidable and undecidable problems. In the present paper, we tour a fragment of
this literature
Memoization for Unary Logic Programming: Characterizing PTIME
We give a characterization of deterministic polynomial time computation based
on an algebraic structure called the resolution semiring, whose elements can be
understood as logic programs or sets of rewriting rules over first-order terms.
More precisely, we study the restriction of this framework to terms (and logic
programs, rewriting rules) using only unary symbols. We prove it is complete
for polynomial time computation, using an encoding of pushdown automata. We
then introduce an algebraic counterpart of the memoization technique in order
to show its PTIME soundness. We finally relate our approach and complexity
results to complexity of logic programming. As an application of our
techniques, we show a PTIME-completeness result for a class of logic
programming queries which use only unary function symbols.Comment: Soumis {\`a} LICS 201
Translation from Classical Two-Way Automata to Pebble Two-Way Automata
We study the relation between the standard two-way automata and more powerful
devices, namely, two-way finite automata with an additional "pebble" movable
along the input tape. Similarly as in the case of the classical two-way
machines, it is not known whether there exists a polynomial trade-off, in the
number of states, between the nondeterministic and deterministic pebble two-way
automata. However, we show that these two machine models are not independent:
if there exists a polynomial trade-off for the classical two-way automata, then
there must also exist a polynomial trade-off for the pebble two-way automata.
Thus, we have an upward collapse (or a downward separation) from the classical
two-way automata to more powerful pebble automata, still staying within the
class of regular languages. The same upward collapse holds for complementation
of nondeterministic two-way machines.
These results are obtained by showing that each pebble machine can be, by
using suitable inputs, simulated by a classical two-way automaton with a linear
number of states (and vice versa), despite the existing exponential blow-up
between the classical and pebble two-way machines
Real-Time Vector Automata
We study the computational power of real-time finite automata that have been
augmented with a vector of dimension k, and programmed to multiply this vector
at each step by an appropriately selected matrix. Only one entry
of the vector can be tested for equality to 1 at any time. Classes of languages
recognized by deterministic, nondeterministic, and "blind" versions of these
machines are studied and compared with each other, and the associated classes
for multicounter automata, automata with multiplication, and generalized finite
automata.Comment: 14 page
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