51 research outputs found
Syntactic Complexity of R- and J-Trivial Regular Languages
The syntactic complexity of a regular language is the cardinality of its
syntactic semigroup. The syntactic complexity of a subclass of the class of
regular languages is the maximal syntactic complexity of languages in that
class, taken as a function of the state complexity n of these languages. We
study the syntactic complexity of R- and J-trivial regular languages, and prove
that n! and floor of [e(n-1)!] are tight upper bounds for these languages,
respectively. We also prove that 2^{n-1} is the tight upper bound on the state
complexity of reversal of J-trivial regular languages.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
Quotient Complexity of Regular Languages
The past research on the state complexity of operations on regular languages
is examined, and a new approach based on an old method (derivatives of regular
expressions) is presented. Since state complexity is a property of a language,
it is appropriate to define it in formal-language terms as the number of
distinct quotients of the language, and to call it "quotient complexity". The
problem of finding the quotient complexity of a language f(K,L) is considered,
where K and L are regular languages and f is a regular operation, for example,
union or concatenation. Since quotients can be represented by derivatives, one
can find a formula for the typical quotient of f(K,L) in terms of the quotients
of K and L. To obtain an upper bound on the number of quotients of f(K,L) all
one has to do is count how many such quotients are possible, and this makes
automaton constructions unnecessary. The advantages of this point of view are
illustrated by many examples. Moreover, new general observations are presented
to help in the estimation of the upper bounds on quotient complexity of regular
operations
State Complexity of Reversals of Deterministic Finite Automata with Output
We investigate the worst-case state complexity of reversals of deterministic
finite automata with output (DFAOs). In these automata, each state is assigned
some output value, rather than simply being labelled final or non-final. This
directly generalizes the well-studied problem of determining the worst-case
state complexity of reversals of ordinary deterministic finite automata. If a
DFAO has states and possible output values, there is a known upper
bound of for the state complexity of reversal. We show this bound can be
reached with a ternary input alphabet. We conjecture it cannot be reached with
a binary input alphabet except when , and give a lower bound for the
case . We prove that the state complexity of reversal depends
solely on the transition monoid of the DFAO and the mapping that assigns output
values to states.Comment: 18 pages, 3 tables. Added missing affiliation/funding informatio
Complexity in Prefix-Free Regular Languages
We examine deterministic and nondeterministic state complexities of regular
operations on prefix-free languages. We strengthen several results by providing
witness languages over smaller alphabets, usually as small as possible. We next
provide the tight bounds on state complexity of symmetric difference, and
deterministic and nondeterministic state complexity of difference and cyclic
shift of prefix-free languages.Comment: In Proceedings DCFS 2010, arXiv:1008.127
The Magic Number Problem for Subregular Language Families
We investigate the magic number problem, that is, the question whether there
exists a minimal n-state nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) whose
equivalent minimal deterministic finite automaton (DFA) has alpha states, for
all n and alpha satisfying n less or equal to alpha less or equal to exp(2,n).
A number alpha not satisfying this condition is called a magic number (for n).
It was shown in [11] that no magic numbers exist for general regular languages,
while in [5] trivial and non-trivial magic numbers for unary regular languages
were identified. We obtain similar results for automata accepting subregular
languages like, for example, combinational languages, star-free, prefix-,
suffix-, and infix-closed languages, and prefix-, suffix-, and infix-free
languages, showing that there are only trivial magic numbers, when they exist.
For finite languages we obtain some partial results showing that certain
numbers are non-magic.Comment: In Proceedings DCFS 2010, arXiv:1008.127
A New Technique for Reachability of States in Concatenation Automata
We present a new technique for demonstrating the reachability of states in
deterministic finite automata representing the concatenation of two languages.
Such demonstrations are a necessary step in establishing the state complexity
of the concatenation of two languages, and thus in establishing the state
complexity of concatenation as an operation. Typically, ad-hoc induction
arguments are used to show particular states are reachable in concatenation
automata. We prove some results that seem to capture the essence of many of
these induction arguments. Using these results, reachability proofs in
concatenation automata can often be done more simply and without using
induction directly.Comment: 23 pages, 1 table. Added missing affiliation/funding informatio
Synchronization Problems in Automata without Non-trivial Cycles
We study the computational complexity of various problems related to
synchronization of weakly acyclic automata, a subclass of widely studied
aperiodic automata. We provide upper and lower bounds on the length of a
shortest word synchronizing a weakly acyclic automaton or, more generally, a
subset of its states, and show that the problem of approximating this length is
hard. We investigate the complexity of finding a synchronizing set of states of
maximum size. We also show inapproximability of the problem of computing the
rank of a subset of states in a binary weakly acyclic automaton and prove that
several problems related to recognizing a synchronizing subset of states in
such automata are NP-complete.Comment: Extended and corrected version, including arXiv:1608.00889.
Conference version was published at CIAA 2017, LNCS vol. 10329, pages
188-200, 201
Optimal State Reductions of Automata with Partially Specified Behaviors
Nondeterministic finite automata with don't care states, namely states which neither accept nor reject, are considered. A characterization of deterministic automata compatible with such a device is obtained. Furthermore, an optimal state bound for the smallest compatible deterministic automata is provided. Finally, it is proved that the problem of minimizing nondeterministic and deterministic don't care automata is NP-complete
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