On regular tree languages and deterministic pushdown automata

The theory of formal string languages and of formal tree languages are both important parts of the theory of formal languages. Regular tree languages are recognized by finite tree automata. Trees in their postfix notation can be seen as strings. This paper presents a simple transformation from any given (bottom-up) finite tree automaton recognizing a regular tree language to a deterministic pushdown automaton accepting the same tree language in postfix notation. The resulting deterministic pushdown automaton can be implemented easily by an existing parser generator because it is constructed for an LR(0) grammar, and its size directly corresponds to the size of the deterministic finite tree automaton. The class of regular tree languages in postfix notation is a proper subclass of deterministic context-free string languages. Moreover, the class of tree languages which are in their postfix notation deterministic context-free string languages is a proper superclass of the class of regular tree languages.     

Algebraic properties on the cuts of lattice-valued regular languages

In this paper, the algebraic operations on the cuts of lattice-valued regular languages are studied. Some sufficient conditions are given to guarantee the family of the cuts of lattice-valued regular languages to be closed under such algebraic operations as union, intersection, complement, quotient, homomorphism, inverse homomorphism, concatennation, reversal, etc. This work is supported by National Science Foundation of China (Grant No.10571112), “TRAPOYT” of China and National 973 Foundation Research Program (Grant No. 2002CB312200).     

一种改进的区域自动机构造方法

用时间自动机验证一个有穷状态实时系统的正确性，可归结为判定两个时间正则语言的包含问题，亦可归结为判定两个时间正则语言的交是否为空的问题。在判定一个时间正则语言是否为空时，先要将时间自动机转化为无时间的区域自动机。Alur和Dill给出的构造区域自动机的算法，存在许多不可达或虽可达但无用的状态。通过对时钟约束进行分析，在求时钟区域和时间后继的过程中，不断地将一些不可达或无用状态筛掉，使构造出的区域自动机更为优化，改进了Alur等人给出的算法。     

A NEW AUTOMATON MODEL FOR TAGS: 2-SA

In this paper, we introduce and define a new class of automata (pushdown automata with n stacks, abbreviated as n-SA). The ultimate aim is to give a new characterization of LCRFL, the class of languages accepted by a linear context-free rewriting system (LCFRS). In particular, we introduce 2-SA as a new automaton model for tree-adjoining grammars (TAG). In the simplest cases (0-SA and 1-SA), the languages that are accepted by the automata are the regular and context-free languages respectively. A more complex case is the case of a 2-SA which accepts TALs. The n-SA creates an infinite hierarchy of languages and it seems that this hierarchy corresponds to others in the class LCFRL. The 2-SA corresponds closely to the EPDA (embedded pushdown automaton, an automaton model equivalent to TAGs). Unlike the EPDA, which allows push operations "below the top stack," an n-SA allows push and pop operations only on the top of their (multiple) stacks. So n-SA trade simpler operations against an also simpler but expanded storage structure.     

Decidability of operation problems for T0L languages and subclasses

We investigate the decidability of the operation problem for T0L languages and subclasses. Fix an operation on formal languages. Given languages from the family considered (0L languages, T0L languages, or their propagating variants), is the application of this operation to the given languages still a language that belongs to the same language family? Observe, that all the Lindenmayer language families in question are anti-AFLs, that is, they are not closed under homomorphisms, inverse homomorphisms, intersection with regular languages, union, concatenation, and Kleene closure. Besides these classical operations we also consider intersection and substitution, since the language families under consideration are not closed under these operations, too. We show that for all of the above mentioned language operations, except for the Kleene closure, the corresponding operation problems of 0L and T0L languages and their propagating variants are not even semidecidable. The situation changes for unary 0L languages. In this case we prove that the operation problems with respect to Kleene star, complementation, and intersection with regular sets are decidable.     

A Kleene theorem for splitable signals

In this paper, we consider timed automata for piecewise constant signals and prove that they recognize exactly the languages denoted by signal regular expressions with intersection and renaming. The main differences from the usual timed automata are: time elapses on transitions (passing through a state is instantaneous), signals may be split on a run on an automaton and constraints on transitions correspond to unions of open intervals but should be satisfied on closed intervals. This makes exact rendez-vous impossible. The paper stresses on the similarities and differences from the usual model.     

Vectorial languages and linear temporal logic

Determining for a given deterministic complete automaton the sequence of visited states while reading a given word is the core of important problems with automata-based solutions, such as approximate string matching. The main difficulty is to do this computation efficiently. Considering words as vectors and working on them using vectorial operations allows to solve the problem faster than using local operations.

In this paper, we show first that the set of vectorial operations needed by an algorithm representing a given automaton depends on the language accepted by the automaton. We give precise characterizations for star-free, solvable and regular languages using vectorial algorithms. We also study classes of languages associated with restricted sets of vectorial operations and relate them with languages defined by fragments of linear temporal logic.

Finally, we consider the converse problem of constructing an automaton from a given vectorial algorithm. As a byproduct, we show that the satisfiability problem for some extensions of LTL characterizing solvable and regular languages is PSPACE-complete.     

A note on deciding controllability in pushdown systems

Consider an event alphabet /spl Sigma/. The supervisory control theory of Ramadge and Wonham asks the question, given a plant model G, with language K L/sub M/(G)/spl sube//spl Sigma//sup */ and another language K/spl sube/ L/sub M/(G), is there a supervisor /spl psi/ such that L/sub M/(/spl psi//G)=K. Ramadge and Wonham showed that a necessary condition for this to be true is the so-called controllability of K with respect to L/sub M/(G). They showed that when G is a finite state automaton and K is a regular language (also generated by a finite state automaton), then the controllability property was decidable for K. The class of languages generated by pushdown automata properly includes the regular languages. They are accepted by finite state machines coupled with pushdown stack memory. This makes them interesting candidates as supervisory languages, since the supervisor will have nonfinite memory. In this note, we show the following: i) If S is a specification given by a deterministic pushdown automaton and L is generated by a finite state machine, then there is an algorithm to decide whether K=S/spl cap/L is controllable with respect to L. ii) It is undecidable for an arbitrary specification S generated by a nondeterministic pushdown automaton and plant language L generated by a finite state machine whether K=S/spl cap/L is controllable with respect to L.     

Shuffle languages are in P

In this paper we show that shuffle languages are contained in one-way-NSPACE(log n) thus in P. We consider the class of shuffle languages which emerges from the class of finite languages through regular operations (union, concatenation, Kleene star) and shuffle operations (shuffle and shuffle closure). For every shuffle expression E we construct a shuffle automaton which accepts the language generated by E and we show that the automaton can be simulated by a one-way nondeterministic Turing machine in logarithmic space.     

Query Learning of Regular Tree Languages: How to Avoid Dead States

We generalize an inference algorithm by Angluin, that learns a regular string language from a "minimally adequate teacher", to regular tree languages. The (deterministic bottom-up) finite tree automaton constructed by the learning algorithm is the minimal partial one recognizing the unknown language. This improves a similar algorithm proposed by Sakakibara by avoiding dead states both in the resulting automaton and the learning phase, which also leads to a considerable improvement with respect to efficiency.     

On regular realizability problems for context-free languages

We consider regular realizability problems, which consist in verifying whether the intersection of a regular language which is the problem input and a fixed language (filter) which is a parameter of the problem is nonempty. We study the algorithmic complexity of regular realizability problems for context-free filters. This characteristic is consistent with the rational dominance relation of CF languages. However, as we prove, it is more rough. We also give examples of both P-complete and NL-complete regular realizability problems for CF filters. Furthermore, we give an example of a subclass of CF languages for filters of which the regular realizability problems can have an intermediate complexity. These are languages with polynomially bounded rational indices.     

The notion of a probabilistic cellular acceptor

The combination of the notions of a cellular automaton and a probabilistic automaton, called a probabilistic cellular automaton, was proposed in 1973 by the first author of this paper as a more adequate model of any system with unreliable components that operate in a parallel manner. In this paper a language-acceptor type of such a probabilistic cellular automaton, called aprobabilistic bounded cellular acceptor (PBCA), is defined and studied. It is shown that the class of all languages accepted by one-dimensional PBCAs includes both the class of all languages accepted by bounded cellular acceptors (BCAs) and the class of all languages accepted by probabilistic acceptors (PAs). Also, it is shown that every language accepted by ad-dimensional PBCA at a given cut point is accepted by ad-dimensional PBCA at an arbitrary nonzero cut point. The class of all languages accepted by one-dimensional PBCAs at cut point 0 is shown to be precisely the class of all context-sensitive languages. Several decision problems for PBCAs are shown to be recursively unsolvable. Finally, various open problems concerning PBCAs and PBCLs are discussed.     

Deterministic weak-and-marked Petri net languages are regular

The intersection of the class of deterministic weak and the class of deterministic marked Petri net languages is the class of regular languages. We prove this result using a lemma that characterizes regular deterministic Petri net languages     

模糊树自动机语言的封闭性

给出了[Σ-]代数、[Σ-]树、模糊[Σ-]树自动机、模糊[Σ-]树自动机行为的定义。引入了模糊树自动机语言的并、交、连接和Kleene闭包运算,证明了在这些运算下模糊树自动机语言的封闭性。     

Controlled finite automata

This paper discusses finite automata regulated by control languages over their states and transition rules. It proves that under both regulations, regular-controlled finite automata and context-free-controlled finite automata characterize the family of regular languages and the family of context-free languages, respectively. It also establishes conditions under which any state-controlled finite automaton can be turned into an equivalent transition-controlled finite automaton and vice versa. The paper also demonstrates a close relation between these automata and programmed grammars. Indeed, it proves that finite automata controlled by languages generated by propagating programmed grammars with appearance checking are computationally complete. In fact, it demonstrates that this computational completeness holds even in terms of these automata with a reduced number of states.     

NTS languages are deterministic and congruential

A context-free grammar is said to be NTS if the set of sentential forms it generates is unchanged when the rules are used both ways. We prove here that such grammars generate deterministic languages which are finite unions of congruence classes. Moreover, we show that this family of languages is closed under reversal and intersection with regular sets. A forthcoming paper will prove that, for this class, the equivalence problem is decidable.     

Regular Languages Accepted by Quantum Automata

In this paper we analyze some features of the behaviour of quantum automata. In particular we prove that the class of languages recognized by quantum automata with isolated cut point is the class of reversible regular languages. As a more general result, we give a bound on the inverse error that implies the regularity of the language accepted by a quantum automaton.     

赋权型自动机的不同模型研究

自动机理论是理论计算机科学的基础理论之一,在很多领域自动机有着广泛的应用,有穷状态自动机是正则语言的识别机器,通常分为确定型与非确定型两种模型,其识别语言的能力是等价的。赋权自动机是另一类重要的自动机模型,自动机的每条转移规则和状态可以赋以某一代数结构上的某一数值,从而可以计算输入字符串的权值。任何有穷状态自动机都可以视为一特殊赋权自动机,因此赋权自动机功能更强大,应用更为广泛。