4,256 research outputs found
Logic Meets Algebra: the Case of Regular Languages
The study of finite automata and regular languages is a privileged meeting
point of algebra and logic. Since the work of Buchi, regular languages have
been classified according to their descriptive complexity, i.e. the type of
logical formalism required to define them. The algebraic point of view on
automata is an essential complement of this classification: by providing
alternative, algebraic characterizations for the classes, it often yields the
only opportunity for the design of algorithms that decide expressibility in
some logical fragment.
We survey the existing results relating the expressibility of regular
languages in logical fragments of MSO[S] with algebraic properties of their
minimal automata. In particular, we show that many of the best known results in
this area share the same underlying mechanics and rely on a very strong
relation between logical substitutions and block-products of pseudovarieties of
monoid. We also explain the impact of these connections on circuit complexity
theory.Comment: 37 page
One Quantifier Alternation in First-Order Logic with Modular Predicates
Adding modular predicates yields a generalization of first-order logic FO
over words. The expressive power of FO[<,MOD] with order comparison and
predicates for has been investigated by Barrington,
Compton, Straubing and Therien. The study of FO[<,MOD]-fragments was initiated
by Chaubard, Pin and Straubing. More recently, Dartois and Paperman showed that
definability in the two-variable fragment FO2[<,MOD] is decidable. In this
paper we continue this line of work.
We give an effective algebraic characterization of the word languages in
Sigma2[<,MOD]. The fragment Sigma2 consists of first-order formulas in prenex
normal form with two blocks of quantifiers starting with an existential block.
In addition we show that Delta2[<,MOD], the largest subclass of Sigma2[<,MOD]
which is closed under negation, has the same expressive power as two-variable
logic FO2[<,MOD]. This generalizes the result FO2[<] = Delta2[<] of Therien and
Wilke to modular predicates. As a byproduct, we obtain another decidable
characterization of FO2[<,MOD]
Discovering the roots: Uniform closure results for algebraic classes under factoring
Newton iteration (NI) is an almost 350 years old recursive formula that
approximates a simple root of a polynomial quite rapidly. We generalize it to a
matrix recurrence (allRootsNI) that approximates all the roots simultaneously.
In this form, the process yields a better circuit complexity in the case when
the number of roots is small but the multiplicities are exponentially
large. Our method sets up a linear system in unknowns and iteratively
builds the roots as formal power series. For an algebraic circuit
of size we prove that each factor has size at most a
polynomial in: and the degree of the squarefree part of . Consequently,
if is a -hard polynomial then any nonzero multiple
is equally hard for arbitrary positive 's, assuming
that is at most .
It is an old open question whether the class of poly()-sized formulas
(resp. algebraic branching programs) is closed under factoring. We show that
given a polynomial of degree and formula (resp. ABP) size
we can find a similar size formula (resp. ABP) factor in
randomized poly()-time. Consequently, if determinant requires
size formula, then the same can be said about any of its
nonzero multiples.
As part of our proofs, we identify a new property of multivariate polynomial
factorization. We show that under a random linear transformation ,
completely factors via power series roots. Moreover, the
factorization adapts well to circuit complexity analysis. This with allRootsNI
are the techniques that help us make progress towards the old open problems,
supplementing the large body of classical results and concepts in algebraic
circuit factorization (eg. Zassenhaus, J.NT 1969, Kaltofen, STOC 1985-7 \&
Burgisser, FOCS 2001).Comment: 33 Pages, No figure
Quantifiers on languages and codensity monads
This paper contributes to the techniques of topo-algebraic recognition for
languages beyond the regular setting as they relate to logic on words. In
particular, we provide a general construction on recognisers corresponding to
adding one layer of various kinds of quantifiers and prove a corresponding
Reutenauer-type theorem. Our main tools are codensity monads and duality
theory. Our construction hinges on a measure-theoretic characterisation of the
profinite monad of the free S-semimodule monad for finite and commutative
semirings S, which generalises our earlier insight that the Vietoris monad on
Boolean spaces is the codensity monad of the finite powerset functor.Comment: 30 pages. Presentation improved and details of several proofs added.
The main results are unchange
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