Degree of Sequentiality of Weighted Automata

Weighted automata (WA) are an important formalism to describe quantitative properties. Obtaining equivalent deterministic machines is a longstanding research problem. In this paper we consider WA with a set semantics, meaning that the semantics is given by the set of weights of accepting runs. We focus on multi-sequential WA that are defined as finite unions of sequential WA. The problem we address is to minimize the size of this union. We call this minimum the degree of sequentiality of (the relation realized by) the WA. For a given positive integer k, we provide multiple characterizations of relations realized by a union of k sequential WA over an infinitary finitely generated group: a Lipschitz-like machine independent property, a pattern on the automaton (a new twinning property) and a subclass of cost register automata. When possible, we effectively translate a WA into an equivalent union of k sequential WA. We also provide a decision procedure for our twinning property for commutative computable groups thus allowing to compute the degree of sequentiality. Last, we show that these results also hold for word transducers and that the associated decision problem is PSPACE -complete

Decidability of definability issues in the theory of real addition

Given a subset of $X\subseteq \mathbb{R}^{n}$ we can associate with every point $x\in \mathbb{R}^{n}$ a vector space $V$ of maximal dimension with the property that for some ball centered at $x$, the subset $X$ coincides inside the ball with a union of lines parallel with $V$. A point is singular if $V$ has dimension $0$. In an earlier paper we proved that a $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,\mathbb{Z})$-definable relation $X$ is actually definable in $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,1)$ if and only if the number of singular points is finite and every rational section of $X$ is $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,1)$-definable, where a rational section is a set obtained from $X$ by fixing some component to a rational value. Here we show that we can dispense with the hypothesis of $X$ being $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,\mathbb{Z})$-definable by assuming that the components of the singular points are rational numbers. This provides a topological characterization of first-order definability in the structure $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,1)$. It also allows us to deliver a self-definable criterion (in Muchnik's terminology) of $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,1)$- and $(\mathbb{R}, +,< ,\mathbb{Z})$-definability for a wide class of relations, which turns into an effective criterion provided that the corresponding theory is decidable. In particular these results apply to the class of $k-$recognizable relations on reals, and allow us to prove that it is decidable whether a $k-$recognizable relation (of any arity) is $l-$recognizable for every base $l \geq 2$.Comment: added sections 5 and 6, typos corrected. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2002.0428

Graph Spectral Properties of Deterministic Finite Automata

We prove that a minimal automaton has a minimal adjacency matrix rank and a minimal adjacency matrix nullity using equitable partition (from graph spectra theory) and Nerode partition (from automata theory). This result naturally introduces the notion of matrix rank into a regular language L, the minimal adjacency matrix rank of a deterministic automaton that recognises L. We then define and focus on rank-one languages: the class of languages for which the rank of minimal automaton is one. We also define the expanded canonical automaton of a rank-one language.Comment: This paper has been accepted at the following conference: 18th International Conference on Developments in Language Theory (DLT 2014), August 26 - 29, 2014, Ekaterinburg, Russi

Contextual partial commutations

We consider the monoid T with the presentation which is "close" to trace monoids. We prove two different types of results. First, we give a combinatorial description of the lexicographically minimum and maximum representatives of their congruence classes in the free monoid {a; b}* and solve the classical equations, such as commutation and conjugacy in T. Then we study the closure properties of the two subfamilies of the rational subsets of T whose lexicographically minimum and maximum cross-sections respectively, are rational in {a; b}*. © 2010 Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science