Minimization Strategies for Maximally Parallel Multiset Rewriting Systems

Maximally parallel multiset rewriting systems (MPMRS) give a convenient way to express relations between unstructured objects. The functioning of various computational devices may be expressed in terms of MPMRS (e.g., register machines and many variants of P systems). In particular, this means that MPMRS are computationally complete; however, a direct translation leads to quite a big number of rules. Like for other classes of computationally complete devices, there is a challenge to find a universal system having the smallest number of rules. In this article we present different rule minimization strategies for MPMRS based on encodings and structural transformations. We apply these strategies to the translation of a small universal register machine (Korec, 1996) and we show that there exists a universal MPMRS with 23 rules. Since MPMRS are identical to a restricted variant of P systems with antiport rules, the results we obtained improve previously known results on the number of rules for those systems.Comment: This article is an improved version of [1

On the Power of Deterministic EC P Systems

It is commonly believed that a signi¯cant part of the computational power of membrane systems comes from their inherent non-determinism. Re- cently, R. Freund and Gh. P¸aun have considered deterministic P systems, and formulated the general question whether the computing (generative) capacity of non-deterministic P systems is strictly larger than the (recognizing) capacity of their deterministic counterpart. In this paper, we study the computational power of deterministic P systems in the evolution{communication framework. It is known that, in the genera- tive case, two membranes are enough for universality. For the deterministic systems, we obtain the universality with three membranes, leaving the original problem open

Maximally Parallel Multiset-Rewriting Systems: Browsing the Configurations

The aim of this research is to produce an algorithm for the software that would let a researcher to observe the evolution of maximally parallel multiset-rewriting systems with permitting and forbidding contexts, browsing the configuration space by following transitions like following hyperlinks in the World-Wide Web. The relationships of maximally parallel multiset-rewriting systems with other rewriting systems are investigated, such as Petri nets, different kinds of P systems, Lindenmayer systems, grammar systems, regulated grammars

Communication in membrana Systems with symbol Objects.

Esta tesis está dedicada a los sistemas de membranas con objetos-símbolo como marco teórico de los sistemas paralelos y distribuidos de procesamiento de multiconjuntos.Una computación de parada puede aceptar, generar o procesar un número, un vector o una palabra; por tanto el sistema define globalmente (a través de los resultados de todas sus computaciones) un conjunto de números, de vectores, de palabras (es decir, un lenguaje), o bien una función. En esta tesis estudiamos la capacidad de estos sistemas para resolver problemas particulares, así como su potencia computacional. Por ejemplo, las familias de lenguajes definidas por diversas clases de estos sistemas se comparan con las familias clásicas, esto es, lenguajes regulares, independientes del contexto, generados por sistemas 0L tabulados extendidos, generados por gramáticas matriciales sin chequeo de apariciones, recursivamente enumerables, etc. Se prestará especial atención a la comunicación de objetos entre regiones y a las distintas formas de cooperación entre ellos.Se pretende (Sección 3.4) realizar una formalización los sistemas de membranas y construir una herramienta tipo software para la variante que usa cooperación no distribuida, el navegador de configuraciones, es decir, un simulador, en el cual el usuario selecciona la siguiente configuración entre todas las posibles, estando permitido volver hacia atrás. Se considerarán diversos modelos distribuidos. En el modelo de evolución y comunicación (Capítulo 4) separamos las reglas tipo-reescritura y las reglas de transporte (llamadas symport y antiport). Los sistemas de bombeo de protones (proton pumping, Secciones 4.8, 4.9) constituyen una variante de los sistemas de evolución y comunicación con un modo restrictivo de cooperación. Un modelo especial de computación con membranas es el modelo puramente comunicativo, en el cual los objetos traspasan juntos una membrana. Estudiamos la potencia computacional de las sistemas de membranas con symport/antiport de 2 o 3 objetos (Capítulo 5) y la potencia computacional de las sistemas de membranas con alfabeto limitado (Capítulo 6).El determinismo (Secciones 4.7, 5.5, etc.) es una característica especial (restrictiva) de los sistemas computacionales. Se pondrá especial énfasis en analizar si esta restricción reduce o no la potencia computacional de los mismos. Los resultados obtenidos para sistemas de bombeo del protones están transferidos (Sección 7.3) a sistemas con catalizadores bistabiles. Unos ejemplos de aplicación concreta de los sistemas de membranas (Secciones 7.1, 7.2) son la resolución de problemas NP-completos en tiempo polinomial y la resolución de problemas de ordenación.This thesis deals with membrane systems with symbol objects as a theoretical framework of distributed parallel multiset processing systems.A halting computation can accept, generate or process a number, a vector or a word, so the system globally defines (by the results of all its computations) a set of numbers or a set of vectors or a set of words, (i.e., a language), or a function. The ability of these systems to solve particular problems is investigated, as well as their computational power, e.g., the language families defined by different classes of these systems are compared to the classical ones, i.e., regular, context-free, languages generated by extended tabled 0L systems, languages generated by matrix grammars without appearance checking, recursively enumerable languages, etc. Special attention is paid to communication of objects between the regions and to the ways of cooperation between the objects.An attempt to formalize the membrane systems is made (Section 3.4), and a software tool is constructed for the non-distributed cooperative variant, the configuration browser, i.e., a simulator, where the user chooses the next configuration among the possible ones and can go back. Different distributed models are considered. In the evolution-communication model (Chapter 4) rewriting-like rules are separated from transport rules. Proton pumping systems (Sections 4.8, 4.9) are a variant of the evolution-communication systems with a restricted way of cooperation. A special membrane computing model is a purely communicative one: the objects are moved together through a membrane. We study the computational power of membrane systems with symport/antiport of 2 or 3 objects (Chapter 5) and the computational power of membrane systems with a limited alphabet (Chapter 6).Determinism (Sections 4.7, 5.5, etc.) is a special property of computational systems; the question of whether this restriction reduces the computational power is addressed. The results on proton pumping systems can be carried over (Section 7.3) to the systems with bi-stable catalysts. Some particular examples of membrane systems applications are solving NP-complete problems in polynomial time, and solving the sorting problem

A Note on P Systems with Activators

The usual assumption in P systems behavior is that of maximal parallelism, however in living cells it is not the case because they have a limited number of enzymes. The aim of this paper is to try to merge these ideas by introducing a notion of activator - a formal model of enzyme as a usual symbol- object, more or less a middle notion between a catalyst and a promoter. Each activator executes one (context-free) rule, and can evolve in the same step. The rules will need activators to be applied, so the parallelism of each rule is maximal, but limited to the number of its activators. Such systems can generate any recursively enumerable language or determinis- tically accept any recursively enumerable set of vectors of nonnegative integers. It is open what is the power of P systems with uniport rules and activator

Minimal Parallelism and Number of Membrane Polarizations

It is known that the satisfiability problem (SAT) can be efficiently solved by a uniform family of P systems with active membranes that have two polarizations working in a maximally parallel way. We study P systems with active membranes without non-elementary membrane division, working in minimally parallel way. The main question we address is what number of polarizations is sufficient for an efficient computation depending on the types of rules used.In particular, we show that it is enough to have four polarizations, sequential evolution rules changing polarizations, polarizationless non-elementary membrane division rules and polarizationless rules of sending an object out. The same problem is solved with the standard evolution rules, rules of sending an object out and polarizationless non-elementary membrane division rules, with six polarizations. It is an open question whether these numbers are optimal

Deterministic Non-cooperative P Systems with Strong Context Conditions

We continue the line of research of deterministic parallel non-cooperative multiset rewriting with control. We here generalize control, i.e., rule applicability context conditions, from promoters and inhibitors checking presence or absence of certain object up to some bound, to regular and even stronger predicates, focusing at predicates over multiplicity of one symbol at a time

Introducing the Concept of Activation and Blocking of Rules in the General Framework for Regulated Rewriting in Sequential Grammars

We introduce new possibilities to control the application of rules based on the preceding application of rules which can be de ned for a general model of sequential grammars and we show some similarities to other control mechanisms as graph-controlled grammars and matrix grammars with and without applicability checking as well as gram- mars with random context conditions and ordered grammars. Using both activation and blocking of rules, in the string and in the multiset case we can show computational com- pleteness of context-free grammars equipped with the control mechanism of activation and blocking of rules even when using only two nonterminal symbols

Evolution-Communication P Systems: Time-Freeness

Membrane computing is a (biologically motivated) theoretical framework of distributed parallel computing. If symbol-objects are considered, then membrane sys- tems (also called P systems) are distributed multiset processing systems. In evolution- communication (EC) P systems the computation is carried out with the use of non- cooperative rewriting rules and with (usually the minimally cooperative) transport rules. The goal of this article is to improve the existing results on evolution-communication P systems. It is known that EC P systems with 2 membranes are universal, and so are time-free EC P systems with targets with 3 membranes. We prove that any recursively enumerable set of vectors of nonnegative integers can be generated by time-free EC P systems (without targets) with 2 membranes, thus improving both results

The Power of Symport-3 with Few Extra Symbols

Membrane systems (with symbol objects) are formal models of distributed parallel multiset processing. Symport rules move multiple objects to a neighboring region. It is known that P systems with symport rules of weight at most 3 and a single membrane are computationally complete with 7 superfluous symbols. It is also known that without any superfluous symbols such systems only generate finite sets. We improve the lower bounds on the generative power of P systems with few superfluous objects as follows. 0: empty set and all singletons; k: all sets with at most k elements and all sets of numbers k+regular with up to k states, 1 k 5; 6: all regular sets of non-negative integers. All results except the last one are also valid for different modes, e.g., sequential one, also for higher values of k