Embedding finite automata within regular expressions

Regular expressions and their extensions have become a major component of industry-oriented specification languages such as IEEE PSL [IEEE Standard for Property Specification Language (PSL). IEEE Std 1850™-2005]. The model checking procedure of regular expression based formulas, involves constructing an automaton which runs in parallel with the model.     

Duration-constrained regular expressions

This paper investigates the logic-automata-connection for Duration Calculus. It has been frequently observed that Duration Calculus with linear duration terms comes close to being a logic of linear hybrid automata. We attempt to make this relation precise by constructing Kleene-connection between duration-constrained regular expressions and a subclass of linear hybrid automata called loop-reset automata in which any variable tested in a loop is reset in the same loop. The formalism of duration-constrained regular expressions is an extension of regular expressions with duration constraints, which are essentially formulas of Duration Calculus without negation, yet extended by a Kleene-star operator. In this paper, we show that this formalism is equivalent in expressive power to loop-reset automata by providing a translation procedure from expressions to automata and vice verse.Received June 1999Accepted in revised form September 2003 by M. R. Hansen and C. B. Jones     

From regular expressions to smaller NFAs

Several methods have been developed to construct λ-free automata that represent a regular expression. Among the most widely known are the position automaton (Glushkov), the partial derivatives automaton (Antimirov) and the follow automaton (Ilie and Yu). All these automata can be obtained with quadratic time complexity, thus, the comparison criterion is usually the size of the resulting automaton. The methods that obtain the smallest automata (although, for general expressions, they are not comparable), are the follow and the partial derivatives methods. In this paper, we propose another method to obtain a λ-free automaton from a regular expression. The number of states of the automata we obtain is bounded above by the size of both the partial derivatives automaton and of the follow automaton. Our algorithm also runs with the same time complexity of these methods.     

On probabilistic analog automata

We consider probabilistic automata on a general state space and study their computational power. The model is based on the concept of language recognition by probabilistic automata due to Rabin (Inform. Control 3 (1963) 230) and models of analog computation in a noisy environment suggested by Maass and Orponen (Neural Comput. 10 (1998) 1071), and Maass and Sontag (Neural Comput. 11 (1999) 771). Our main result is a generalization of Rabin's reduction theorem that implies that under very mild conditions, the computational power of such automata is limited to regular languages.     

Two-way deterministic automata with two reversals are exponentially more succinct than with one reversal

We prove that limiting the number of reversals from two to one can cause an exponential blow-up in the size of two-way deterministic automaton.     

Algorithms for the compilation of regular expressions into PLAs

The language of regular expressions is a useful one for specifying certain sequential processes at a very high level. They allow easy modification of designs for circuits, like controllers, that are described by patterns of events they must recognize and the responses they must make to those patterns. This paper discusses the compilation of such expressions into specifications for programmable logic arrays (PLAs) that will implement the required function. A regular expression is converted into a nondeterministic finite automaton, and then the automaton states are encoded as values on wires that are inputs and outputs of a PLA. The translation of regular expressions into nondeterministic automata by two different methods is discussed, along with the advantages of each method. A major part of the compilation problem is selection of good state codes for the nondeterministic automata; one successful strategy and its application to microcode compaction is explained in the paper.Research supported by DARPA Contract N00039-83-C-0136 and NSF Grant MCS-82-03405.     

Two-way unary automata versus logarithmic space

We show that if L=NL (the classical logarithmic space classes), then each unary 2nfa (a two-way nondeterministic finite automaton) can be converted into an equivalent 2dfa (a deterministic two-way automaton), keeping the number of states polynomial. (Unlike other results of this kind, here the deterministic simulation is valid for inputs of all lengths, not only polynomially long ones.) This shows a connection between the standard logarithmic space complexity and the state complexity of two-way unary automata: it indicates that L could be separated from NL by proving a superpolynomial gap, in the number of states, for the conversion from unary 2nfas to 2dfa. Moreover, without any unproven assumptions, we show that each n-state unary 2nfa can be simulated by an equivalent 2ufa (an unambiguous 2nfa) with a polynomial number of states.     

Bounded regular path queries in view-based data integration

In this paper we study the problem of deciding boundedness of (recursive) regular path queries over views in data integration systems, that is, whether a query can be re-expressed without recursion. This problem becomes challenging when the views contain recursion, thereby potentially making recursion in the query unnecessary. We define and solve two related problems of boundedness of regular path queries. One of the problems asks for the existence of a bound, and the other, more restricted one, asks if the query is bounded within a given parameter. For the more restricted version we show it PSPACE complete, and obtain a constructive method for optimizing the queries. For the existential version of boundedness, we show it PTIME reducible to the notorious problem of limitedness in distance automata. This problem has received a lot attention in the formal language community, but only exponential time algorithms are currently known.     

A power-set construction for reducing Büchi automata to non-determinism degree two

Büchi automata are finite automata that accept languages of infinitely long strings, so-called ω-languages. It is well known that, unlike in the finite-string case, deterministic and non-deterministic Büchi automata accept different ω-language classes, i.e., that determination of a non-deterministic Büchi automaton using the classical power-set construction will yield in general a deterministic Büchi automaton which accepts a superset of the ω-language accepted by the given non-deterministic automaton.In this paper, a power-set construction to a given Büchi automaton is presented, which reduces the degree of non-determinism of the automaton to at most two, meaning that to each state and input symbol, there exist at most two distinct successor states. The constructed Büchi automaton of non-determinism degree two and the given Büchi automaton of arbitrary non-determinism degree will accept the same ω-language.