Acceptance Ambiguity for Quantum Automata

We consider notions of freeness and ambiguity for the acceptance probability of Moore-Crutchfield Measure Once Quantum Finite Automata (MO-QFA). We study the distribution of acceptance probabilities of such MO-QFA, which is partly motivated by similar freeness problems for matrix semigroups and other computational models. We show that determining if the acceptance probabilities of all possible input words are unique is undecidable for 32 state MO-QFA, even when all unitary matrices and the projection matrix are rational and the initial configuration is defined over real algebraic numbers. We utilize properties of the skew field of quaternions, free rotation groups, representations of tuples of rationals as a linear sum of radicals and a reduction of the mixed modification Post\u27s correspondence problem

Binary (generalized) Post Correspondence Problem

AbstractWe give a new proof for the decidability of the binary Post Correspondence Problem (PCP) originally proved in 1982 by Ehrenfeucht, Karhumäki and Rozenberg. Our proof is complete and somewhat shorter than the original proof although we use the same basic idea

Positivity of second order linear recurrent sequences

AbstractWe give a decision method for the Positivity Problem for second order recurrent sequences: it is decidable whether or not a recurrent sequence defined by un=aun-1+bun-2 has only nonnegative terms

Alternating, private alternating, and quantum alternating realtime automata

We present new results on realtime alternating, private alternating, and quantum alternating automaton models. Firstly, we show that the emptiness problem for alternating one-counter automata on unary alphabets is undecidable. Then, we present two equivalent definitions of realtime private alternating finite automata (PAFAs). We show that the emptiness problem is undecidable for PAFAs. Furthermore, PAFAs can recognize some nonregular unary languages, including the unary squares language, which seems to be difficult even for some classical counter automata with two-way input. Regarding quantum finite automata (QFAs), we show that the emptiness problem is undecidable both for universal QFAs on general alphabets, and for alternating QFAs with two alternations on unary alphabets. On the other hand, the same problem is decidable for nondeterministic QFAs on general alphabets. We also show that the unary squares language is recognized by alternating QFAs with two alternations

On injectivity of quantum finite automata

We consider notions of freeness and ambiguity for the acceptance probability of Moore-Crutchfield Measure Once Quantum Finite Automata (MO-QFA). We study the injectivity problem of determining if the acceptance probability function of a MO-QFA is injective over all input words, i.e., giving a distinct probability for each input word. We show that the injectivity problem is undecidable for 8 state MO-QFA, even when all unitary matrices and the projection matrix are rational and the initial state vector is real algebraic. We also show undecidability of this problem when the initial vector is rational, although with a huge increase in the number of states. We utilize properties of quaternions, free rotation groups, representations of tuples of rationals as linear sums of radicals and a reduction of the mixed modification of Post's correspondence problem, as well as a new result on rational polynomial packing functions which may be of independent interest.</div

Computational limitations of affine automata and generalized affine automata

We present new results on the computational limitations of affine automata (AfAs). First, we show that using the endmarker does not increase the computational power of AfAs. Second, we show that the computation of bounded-error rational-valued AfAs can be simulated in logarithmic space. Third, we identify some logspace unary languages that are not recognized by algebraic-valued AfAs. Fourth, we show that using arbitrary real-valued transition matrices and state vectors does not increase the computational power of AfAs in the unbounded-error model. When focusing only the rational values, we obtain the the same result also for bounded error. As a consequence, we show that the class of bounded-error affine languages remains the same when the AfAs are restricted to use rational numbers only

The membership problem for subsemigroups of GL2(Z) is NP-complete

We show that the problem of determining if the identity matrix belongs to a finitely generated semigroup of 2x2 matrices from the General Linear Group GL(2,Z) is solvable in NP. We extend this to prove that the membership problem is decidable in NP for GL(2,Z) and for any arbitrary regular expression over matrices from the Special Linear group SL(2,Z). We show that determining if a given finite set of matrices from SL(2,Z) or the modular group PSL(2,Z) generates a group or a free semigroup are decidable in NP. Previous algorithms, shown in 2005 by Choffrut and Karhumäki, were in EXPSPACE. Our algorithm is based on new techniques allowing us to operate on compressed word representations of matrices without explicit expansions. When combined with known NP-hard lower bounds, this proves that the membership problem over GL(2,Z) is NP-complete, and the group problem and the non-freeness problem in SL(2,Z) are NP-complete