10,733 research outputs found
Deterministic Real-Time Tree-Walking-Storage Automata
We study deterministic tree-walking-storage automata, which are finite-state
devices equipped with a tree-like storage. These automata are generalized stack
automata, where the linear stack storage is replaced by a non-linear tree-like
stack. Therefore, tree-walking-storage automata have the ability to explore the
interior of the tree storage without altering the contents, with the possible
moves of the tree pointer corresponding to those of tree-walking automata. In
addition, a tree-walking-storage automaton can append (push) non-existent
descendants to a tree node and remove (pop) leaves from the tree. Here we are
particularly considering the capacities of deterministic tree-walking-storage
automata working in real time. It is shown that even the non-erasing variant
can accept rather complicated unary languages as, for example, the language of
words whose lengths are powers of two, or the language of words whose lengths
are Fibonacci numbers. Comparing the computational capacities with automata
from the classical automata hierarchy, we derive that the families of languages
accepted by real-time deterministic (non-erasing) tree-walking-storage automata
is located between the regular and the deterministic context-sensitive
languages. There is a context-free language that is not accepted by any
real-time deterministic tree-walking-storage automaton. On the other hand,
these devices accept a unary language in non-erasing mode that cannot be
accepted by any classical stack automaton, even in erasing mode and arbitrary
time. Basic closure properties of the induced families of languages are shown.
In particular, we consider Boolean operations (complementation, union,
intersection) and AFL operations (union, intersection with regular languages,
homomorphism, inverse homomorphism, concatenation, iteration). It turns out
that the two families in question have the same properties and, in particular,
share all but one of these closure properties with the important family of
deterministic context-free languages.Comment: In Proceedings NCMA 2023, arXiv:2309.0733
Multipass automata and group word problems
We introduce the notion of multipass automata as a generalization of pushdown
automata and study the classes of languages accepted by such machines. The
class of languages accepted by deterministic multipass automata is exactly the
Boolean closure of the class of deterministic context-free languages while the
class of languages accepted by nondeterministic multipass automata is exactly
the class of poly-context-free languages, that is, languages which are the
intersection of finitely many context-free languages. We illustrate the use of
these automata by studying groups whose word problems are in the above classes
The descriptive complexity approach to LOGCFL
Building upon the known generalized-quantifier-based first-order
characterization of LOGCFL, we lay the groundwork for a deeper investigation.
Specifically, we examine subclasses of LOGCFL arising from varying the arity
and nesting of groupoidal quantifiers. Our work extends the elaborate theory
relating monoidal quantifiers to NC1 and its subclasses. In the absence of the
BIT predicate, we resolve the main issues: we show in particular that no single
outermost unary groupoidal quantifier with FO can capture all the context-free
languages, and we obtain the surprising result that a variant of Greibach's
``hardest context-free language'' is LOGCFL-complete under quantifier-free
BIT-free projections. We then prove that FO with unary groupoidal quantifiers
is strictly more expressive with the BIT predicate than without. Considering a
particular groupoidal quantifier, we prove that first-order logic with majority
of pairs is strictly more expressive than first-order with majority of
individuals. As a technical tool of independent interest, we define the notion
of an aperiodic nondeterministic finite automaton and prove that FO
translations are precisely the mappings computed by single-valued aperiodic
nondeterministic finite transducers.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Context-Free Path Querying by Matrix Multiplication
Graph data models are widely used in many areas, for example, bioinformatics,
graph databases. In these areas, it is often required to process queries for
large graphs. Some of the most common graph queries are navigational queries.
The result of query evaluation is a set of implicit relations between nodes of
the graph, i.e. paths in the graph. A natural way to specify these relations is
by specifying paths using formal grammars over the alphabet of edge labels. An
answer to a context-free path query in this approach is usually a set of
triples (A, m, n) such that there is a path from the node m to the node n,
whose labeling is derived from a non-terminal A of the given context-free
grammar. This type of queries is evaluated using the relational query
semantics. Another example of path query semantics is the single-path query
semantics which requires presenting a single path from the node m to the node
n, whose labeling is derived from a non-terminal A for all triples (A, m, n)
evaluated using the relational query semantics. There is a number of algorithms
for query evaluation which use these semantics but all of them perform poorly
on large graphs. One of the most common technique for efficient big data
processing is the use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform
computations, but these algorithms do not allow to use this technique
efficiently. In this paper, we show how the context-free path query evaluation
using these query semantics can be reduced to the calculation of the matrix
transitive closure. Also, we propose an algorithm for context-free path query
evaluation which uses relational query semantics and is based on matrix
operations that make it possible to speed up computations by using a GPU.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, 2 table
Certified Context-Free Parsing: A formalisation of Valiant's Algorithm in Agda
Valiant (1975) has developed an algorithm for recognition of context free
languages. As of today, it remains the algorithm with the best asymptotic
complexity for this purpose. In this paper, we present an algebraic
specification, implementation, and proof of correctness of a generalisation of
Valiant's algorithm. The generalisation can be used for recognition, parsing or
generic calculation of the transitive closure of upper triangular matrices. The
proof is certified by the Agda proof assistant. The certification is
representative of state-of-the-art methods for specification and proofs in
proof assistants based on type-theory. As such, this paper can be read as a
tutorial for the Agda system
Generalizing input-driven languages: theoretical and practical benefits
Regular languages (RL) are the simplest family in Chomsky's hierarchy. Thanks
to their simplicity they enjoy various nice algebraic and logic properties that
have been successfully exploited in many application fields. Practically all of
their related problems are decidable, so that they support automatic
verification algorithms. Also, they can be recognized in real-time.
Context-free languages (CFL) are another major family well-suited to
formalize programming, natural, and many other classes of languages; their
increased generative power w.r.t. RL, however, causes the loss of several
closure properties and of the decidability of important problems; furthermore
they need complex parsing algorithms. Thus, various subclasses thereof have
been defined with different goals, spanning from efficient, deterministic
parsing to closure properties, logic characterization and automatic
verification techniques.
Among CFL subclasses, so-called structured ones, i.e., those where the
typical tree-structure is visible in the sentences, exhibit many of the
algebraic and logic properties of RL, whereas deterministic CFL have been
thoroughly exploited in compiler construction and other application fields.
After surveying and comparing the main properties of those various language
families, we go back to operator precedence languages (OPL), an old family
through which R. Floyd pioneered deterministic parsing, and we show that they
offer unexpected properties in two fields so far investigated in totally
independent ways: they enable parsing parallelization in a more effective way
than traditional sequential parsers, and exhibit the same algebraic and logic
properties so far obtained only for less expressive language families
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