24,510 research outputs found
CS 466/666: Introduction to Formal Languages
CS 466/666 is an introduction to formal language and automata theory. In this course we will examine methods for defining syntax of languages and recognizing patterns: the syntax of languages can be defined using grammars and patterns accepted by finite state machines. Along with presenting the fundamentals of these two topics, the course will develop and investigate the relationships between language definition and pattern recognition. The text will be the third edition of Languages and Machines: An Introduction to the Theory of Computer Science
On Varieties of Automata Enriched with an Algebraic Structure (Extended Abstract)
Eilenberg correspondence, based on the concept of syntactic monoids, relates
varieties of regular languages with pseudovarieties of finite monoids. Various
modifications of this correspondence related more general classes of regular
languages with classes of more complex algebraic objects. Such generalized
varieties also have natural counterparts formed by classes of finite automata
equipped with a certain additional algebraic structure. In this survey, we
overview several variants of such varieties of enriched automata.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527
Formal Languages in Dynamical Systems
We treat here the interrelation between formal languages and those dynamical
systems that can be described by cellular automata (CA). There is a well-known
injective map which identifies any CA-invariant subshift with a central formal
language. However, in the special case of a symbolic dynamics, i.e. where the
CA is just the shift map, one gets a stronger result: the identification map
can be extended to a functor between the categories of symbolic dynamics and
formal languages. This functor additionally maps topological conjugacies
between subshifts to empty-string-limited generalized sequential machines
between languages. If the periodic points form a dense set, a case which arises
in a commonly used notion of chaotic dynamics, then an even more natural map to
assign a formal language to a subshift is offered. This map extends to a
functor, too. The Chomsky hierarchy measuring the complexity of formal
languages can be transferred via either of these functors from formal languages
to symbolic dynamics and proves to be a conjugacy invariant there. In this way
it acquires a dynamical meaning. After reviewing some results of the complexity
of CA-invariant subshifts, special attention is given to a new kind of
invariant subshift: the trapped set, which originates from the theory of
chaotic scattering and for which one can study complexity transitions.Comment: 23 pages, LaTe
On the rational subset problem for groups
We use language theory to study the rational subset problem for groups and
monoids. We show that the decidability of this problem is preserved under graph
of groups constructions with finite edge groups. In particular, it passes
through free products amalgamated over finite subgroups and HNN extensions with
finite associated subgroups. We provide a simple proof of a result of
Grunschlag showing that the decidability of this problem is a virtual property.
We prove further that the problem is decidable for a direct product of a group
G with a monoid M if and only if membership is uniformly decidable for
G-automata subsets of M. It follows that a direct product of a free group with
any abelian group or commutative monoid has decidable rational subset
membership.Comment: 19 page
Languages, machines, and classical computation
3rd ed, 2021. A circumscription of the classical theory of computation building up from the Chomsky hierarchy. With the usual topics in formal language and automata theory
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