Finite state verifiers with constant randomness

We give a new characterization of $\mathsf{NL}$ as the class of languages whose members have certificates that can be verified with small error in polynomial time by finite state machines that use a constant number of random bits, as opposed to its conventional description in terms of deterministic logarithmic-space verifiers. It turns out that allowing two-way interaction with the prover does not change the class of verifiable languages, and that no polynomially bounded amount of randomness is useful for constant-memory computers when used as language recognizers, or public-coin verifiers. A corollary of our main result is that the class of outcome problems corresponding to O(log n)-space bounded games of incomplete information where the universal player is allowed a constant number of moves equals NL.Comment: 17 pages. An improved versio

An in-between "implicit" and "explicit" complexity: Automata

Implicit Computational Complexity makes two aspects implicit, by manipulating programming languages rather than models of com-putation, and by internalizing the bounds rather than using external measure. We survey how automata theory contributed to complexity with a machine-dependant with implicit bounds model

Superiority of one-way and realtime quantum machines and new directions

In automata theory, the quantum computation has been widely examined for finite state machines, known as quantum finite automata (QFAs), and less attention has been given to the QFAs augmented with counters or stacks. Moreover, to our knowledge, there is no result related to QFAs having more than one input head. In this paper, we focus on such generalizations of QFAs whose input head(s) operate(s) in one-way or realtime mode and present many superiority of them to their classical counterparts. Furthermore, we propose some open problems and conjectures in order to investigate the power of quantumness better. We also give some new results on classical computation.Comment: A revised edition with some correction

Computing with cells: membrane systems - some complexity issues.

Membrane computing is a branch of natural computing which abstracts computing models from the structure and the functioning of the living cell. The main ingredients of membrane systems, called P systems, are (i) the membrane structure, which consists of a hierarchical arrangements of membranes which delimit compartments where (ii) multisets of symbols, called objects, evolve according to (iii) sets of rules which are localised and associated with compartments. By using the rules in a nondeterministic/deterministic maximally parallel manner, transitions between the system configurations can be obtained. A sequence of transitions is a computation of how the system is evolving. Various ways of controlling the transfer of objects from one membrane to another and applying the rules, as well as possibilities to dissolve, divide or create membranes have been studied. Membrane systems have a great potential for implementing massively concurrent systems in an efficient way that would allow us to solve currently intractable problems once future biotechnology gives way to a practical bio-realization. In this paper we survey some interesting and fundamental complexity issues such as universality vs. nonuniversality, determinism vs. nondeterminism, membrane and alphabet size hierarchies, characterizations of context-sensitive languages and other language classes and various notions of parallelism

Logic and the Challenge of Computer Science

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154161/1/39015099114889.pd

Automata with Nested Pebbles Capture First-Order Logic with Transitive Closure

String languages recognizable in (deterministic) log-space are characterized either by two-way (deterministic) multi-head automata, or following Immerman, by first-order logic with (deterministic) transitive closure. Here we elaborate this result, and match the number of heads to the arity of the transitive closure. More precisely, first-order logic with k-ary deterministic transitive closure has the same power as deterministic automata walking on their input with k heads, additionally using a finite set of nested pebbles. This result is valid for strings, ordered trees, and in general for families of graphs having a fixed automaton that can be used to traverse the nodes of each of the graphs in the family. Other examples of such families are grids, toruses, and rectangular mazes. For nondeterministic automata, the logic is restricted to positive occurrences of transitive closure. The special case of k=1 for trees, shows that single-head deterministic tree-walking automata with nested pebbles are characterized by first-order logic with unary deterministic transitive closure. This refines our earlier result that placed these automata between first-order and monadic second-order logic on trees.Comment: Paper for Logical Methods in Computer Science, 27 pages, 1 figur

The Power of Centralized PC Systems of Pushdown Automata

Parallel communicating systems of pushdown automata (PCPA) were introduced in (Csuhaj-Varj{\'u} et. al. 2000) and in their centralized variants shown to be able to simulate nondeterministic one-way multi-head pushdown automata. A claimed converse simulation for returning mode (Balan 2009) turned out to be incomplete (Otto 2012) and a language was suggested for separating these PCPA of degree two (number of pushdown automata) from nondeterministic one-way two-head pushdown automata. We show that the suggested language can be accepted by the latter computational model. We present a different example over a single letter alphabet indeed ruling out the possibility of a simulation between the models. The open question about the power of centralized PCPA working in returning mode is then settled by showing them to be universal. Since the construction is possible using systems of degree two, this also improves the previous bound three for generating all recursively enumerable languages. Finally PCPAs are restricted in such a way that a simulation by multi-head automata is possible