5,636 research outputs found
MeGARA: Menu-based Game Abstraction and Abstraction Refinement of Markov Automata
Markov automata combine continuous time, probabilistic transitions, and
nondeterminism in a single model. They represent an important and powerful way
to model a wide range of complex real-life systems. However, such models tend
to be large and difficult to handle, making abstraction and abstraction
refinement necessary. In this paper we present an abstraction and abstraction
refinement technique for Markov automata, based on the game-based and
menu-based abstraction of probabilistic automata. First experiments show that a
significant reduction in size is possible using abstraction.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2014, arXiv:1406.156
Implications of quantum automata for contextuality
We construct zero-error quantum finite automata (QFAs) for promise problems
which cannot be solved by bounded-error probabilistic finite automata (PFAs).
Here is a summary of our results:
- There is a promise problem solvable by an exact two-way QFA in exponential
expected time, but not by any bounded-error sublogarithmic space probabilistic
Turing machine (PTM).
- There is a promise problem solvable by an exact two-way QFA in quadratic
expected time, but not by any bounded-error -space PTMs in
polynomial expected time. The same problem can be solvable by a one-way Las
Vegas (or exact two-way) QFA with quantum head in linear (expected) time.
- There is a promise problem solvable by a Las Vegas realtime QFA, but not by
any bounded-error realtime PFA. The same problem can be solvable by an exact
two-way QFA in linear expected time but not by any exact two-way PFA.
- There is a family of promise problems such that each promise problem can be
solvable by a two-state exact realtime QFAs, but, there is no such bound on the
number of states of realtime bounded-error PFAs solving the members this
family.
Our results imply that there exist zero-error quantum computational devices
with a \emph{single qubit} of memory that cannot be simulated by any finite
memory classical computational model. This provides a computational perspective
on results regarding ontological theories of quantum mechanics \cite{Hardy04},
\cite{Montina08}. As a consequence we find that classical automata based
simulation models \cite{Kleinmann11}, \cite{Blasiak13} are not sufficiently
powerful to simulate quantum contextuality. We conclude by highlighting the
interplay between results from automata models and their application to
developing a general framework for quantum contextuality.Comment: 22 page
Game Characterization of Probabilistic Bisimilarity, and Applications to Pushdown Automata
We study the bisimilarity problem for probabilistic pushdown automata (pPDA)
and subclasses thereof. Our definition of pPDA allows both probabilistic and
non-deterministic branching, generalising the classical notion of pushdown
automata (without epsilon-transitions). We first show a general
characterization of probabilistic bisimilarity in terms of two-player games,
which naturally reduces checking bisimilarity of probabilistic labelled
transition systems to checking bisimilarity of standard (non-deterministic)
labelled transition systems. This reduction can be easily implemented in the
framework of pPDA, allowing to use known results for standard
(non-probabilistic) PDA and their subclasses. A direct use of the reduction
incurs an exponential increase of complexity, which does not matter in deriving
decidability of bisimilarity for pPDA due to the non-elementary complexity of
the problem. In the cases of probabilistic one-counter automata (pOCA), of
probabilistic visibly pushdown automata (pvPDA), and of probabilistic basic
process algebras (i.e., single-state pPDA) we show that an implicit use of the
reduction can avoid the complexity increase; we thus get PSPACE, EXPTIME, and
2-EXPTIME upper bounds, respectively, like for the respective non-probabilistic
versions. The bisimilarity problems for OCA and vPDA are known to have matching
lower bounds (thus being PSPACE-complete and EXPTIME-complete, respectively);
we show that these lower bounds also hold for fully probabilistic versions that
do not use non-determinism
Finite state verifiers with constant randomness
We give a new characterization of 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
Fair Simulation for Nondeterministic and Probabilistic Buechi Automata: a Coalgebraic Perspective
Notions of simulation, among other uses, provide a computationally tractable
and sound (but not necessarily complete) proof method for language inclusion.
They have been comprehensively studied by Lynch and Vaandrager for
nondeterministic and timed systems; for B\"{u}chi automata the notion of fair
simulation has been introduced by Henzinger, Kupferman and Rajamani. We
contribute to a generalization of fair simulation in two different directions:
one for nondeterministic tree automata previously studied by Bomhard; and the
other for probabilistic word automata with finite state spaces, both under the
B\"{u}chi acceptance condition. The former nondeterministic definition is
formulated in terms of systems of fixed-point equations, hence is readily
translated to parity games and is then amenable to Jurdzi\'{n}ski's algorithm;
the latter probabilistic definition bears a strong ranking-function flavor.
These two different-looking definitions are derived from one source, namely our
coalgebraic modeling of B\"{u}chi automata. Based on these coalgebraic
observations, we also prove their soundness: a simulation indeed witnesses
language inclusion
Bounding Rationality by Discounting Time
Consider a game where Alice generates an integer and Bob wins if he can
factor that integer. Traditional game theory tells us that Bob will always win
this game even though in practice Alice will win given our usual assumptions
about the hardness of factoring.
We define a new notion of bounded rationality, where the payoffs of players
are discounted by the computation time they take to produce their actions. We
use this notion to give a direct correspondence between the existence of
equilibria where Alice has a winning strategy and the hardness of factoring.
Namely, under a natural assumption on the discount rates, there is an
equilibriumwhere Alice has a winning strategy iff there is a linear-time
samplable distribution with respect to which Factoring is hard on average.
We also give general results for discounted games over countable action
spaces, including showing that any game with bounded and computable payoffs has
an equilibrium in our model, even if each player is allowed a countable number
of actions. It follows, for example, that the Largest Integer game has an
equilibrium in our model though it has no Nash equilibria or epsilon-Nash
equilibria.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of The First Symposium on Innovations in
Computer Scienc
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