The use of tree derivatives and a sample support parameter for inferring tree systems

Tree systems have been studied in the theoretical setting as an extension of finite automata. They have been found useful in the practical domain when applied to syntactic pattern recognition. The practical applications of tree systems have motivated the examination of inference techniques for tree grammars and tree automata. In this paper we present a tree automaton inference algorithm which incorporates three concepts-tree derivatives, grammatical expansion, and inferential strength. Tree derivatives are used for comparing tree forms. Grammatical expansion is a feedback mechanism which effectively enlarges the user sample. An inferential strength parameter is input by the user to indicate the amount of support required from the sample for inferences. The algorithm is also applied for inferring finite-state machines. Finally, we address an open problem posed by Joshi and Levy by demonstrating the use of our algorithm for the design of programming languages.     

Inductive inference of logic programs based on algebraic semantics

In this paper we present a new inductive inference algorithm for a class of logic programs, calledlinear monadic logic programs. It has several unique features not found in Shapiro’s Model Inference System. It has been proved that a set of trees isrational if and only if it is computed by a linear monadic logic program, and that the rational set of trees is recognized by a tree automaton. Based on these facts, we can reduce the problem of inductive inference of linear monadic logic programs to the problem of inductive inference of tree automata. Further several efficient inference algorithms for finite automata have been developed. We extend them to an inference algorithm for tree automata and use it to get an efficient inductive inference algorithm for linear monadic logic programs. The correctness, time complexity and several comparisons of our algorithm with Model Inference System are shown.     

The number of DFAs for a given spanning tree

In the last few decades, several techniques to randomly generate a deterministic finite automaton have been developed. These techniques have implications in the enumeration and random generation of automata of size n. One of the ways to generate a finite automaton is to generate a random tree and to complete it to a deterministic finite automaton, assuming that the tree will be the automaton’s breadth-first spanning tree. In this paper we explore further this method, and the string representation of a tree, and use it to counting the number of automata having a tree as a breadth-first spanning subtrees. We introduce the notions of characteristic and difference sequence of a tree, and define the weight of a tree. We also present a recursive formula for this quantity in terms of the “derivative” of a tree. Finally, we analyze the implications of this formula in terms of exploring trees with the largest and smallest number of automata in the span of the tree and present simple applications for finding densities of subsets of DFAs.     

Sofic Tree-Shifts

We introduce the notion of sofic tree-shifts which corresponds to symbolic dynamical systems of infinite ranked trees accepted by finite tree automata. We show that, contrary to shifts of infinite sequences, there is no unique reduced deterministic irreducible tree automaton accepting an irreducible sofic tree-shift, but that there is a unique synchronized one, called the Fischer automaton of the tree-shift. We define the notion of almost of finite type tree-shift which are sofic tree-shifts accepted by a tree automaton which is both deterministic and co-deterministic with a finite delay. It is a meaningful intermediate dynamical class in between irreducible finite type tree-shifts and irreducible sofic tree-shifts. We characterize the Fischer automaton of an almost of finite type tree-shift and we design an algorithm to check whether a sofic tree-shift is almost of finite type. We prove that the Fischer automaton is a topological conjugacy invariant of the underlying irreducible sofic tree-shift.     

Inference of tree automata from sample set of trees

A method for inferring of tree automata from sample set of trees is presented. The procedure, which is based on the concept ofk-follower of a tree with respect to the sample tree set, produces a tree automaton capable of accepting all the sample trees as well as other trees similar in structure. The behavior of the inferred tree automaton for varying values of parameterk is also discussed.This work was supported in part by a Scientific Research Grant-In-Aid (Grant No. 57460129) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.     

Linear regular sets

Summary The purpose of this paper is to give a characterization of the sets of words accepted by finite linear automata. Since every linear automaton is isomorphic to a parallel product of a nilpotent linear automaton and a nonsingular linear automaton, our characterization is presented for these two classes of automata.     

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.     

Recognition of directed acyclic graphs by spanning tree automata

In this paper, we study tree automata for directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). We define the movement of a tree automaton on a DAG so that a DAG is accepted by a tree automaton if and only if the DAG has a spanning tree accepted by the tree automaton. We call this automaton a spanning tree automaton. The NP-completeness of the membership problem of DAGs for spanning tree automata is shown. However, if inputs are restricted to series–parallel graphs or generalized series–parallel graphs, it is shown that the membership problem for spanning tree automata is solvable in linear time.     

The cartesian composition of automata

There are several known ways to define a product automaton on the cartesian product of the state sets of two given automata. This paper introduces a new product called the cartesian composition and discusses how various properties of the product automaton depend on the corresponding properties of the factors. A main result is that any finite connected automaton has a unique representation as a cartesian composition of prime automata.     

On characteristic sets and degrees of finite automata

The characteristic sets and degrees of finite automata are notions used by Biermann for his finite automaton learner. Some fundamental properties and relations of these notions are considered. A necessary and sufficient condition under which his learner converges to an expected automaton is given.     

Uniform inevitability is tree automation ineffable

In this short article we consider the limits of the expressive power of finite automata on infinite trees. We exhibit a surprisingly simple correctness property, uniform inevitability, which is not definable by any type of finite automaton on infinite trees.     

On synchronized evolution of the network of automata

One of the tasks in machine learning is to build a device that predicts each next input symbol of a sequence as it takes one input symbol from the sequence. We studied new approaches to this task. We suggest that deterministic finite automata (DFA) are good building blocks for this device, together with genetic algorithms (GAs), which let these automata "evolve" to predict each next input symbol of the sequence. Moreover, we study how to combine these highly fit automata so that a network of them would compensate for each others' weaknesses and predict better than any single automaton. We studied the simplest approaches to combine automata: building trees of automata with special-purpose automata, which may be called switchboards. These switchboard automata are located on the internal nodes of the tree, take an input symbol from the input sequence just as other automata do, and predict which subtree will make a correct prediction on each next input symbol. GAs again play a crucial role in searching for switchboard automata. We studied various ways of growing trees of automata and tested them on sample input sequences, mainly note pitches, note durations and up/down notes of Bach's Fugue IX. The test results show that DFAs together with GAs seem to be very effective for this type of pattern learning task     

Regular prefix relations

We define a class ofn-ary relations on strings called the regular prefix relations, and give four alternative characterizations of this class:

1. the relations recognized by a new type of automaton, the prefix automata,
2. the relations recognized by tree automata specialized to relations on strings,
3. the relations between strings definable in the second order theory ofk successors,
4. the smallest class containing the regular sets and the prefix relation, and closed under the Boolean operations, Cartesian product, projection, explicit transformation, and concatenation with Cartesian products of regular sets.

We give concrete examples of regular prefix relations, and a pumping argument for prefix automata. An application of these results to the study of inductive inference of regular sets is described.     

有限布尔代数上的线性自动机

自动机理论是计算机科学理论的重要组成部分。论文研究了布尔代数上的线性自动机,证明了任意一个线性有限自动机是函数布尔代数上的一个内动机。定出了有限布尔代数上的一类可逆线性内动机,给出并证明了有限布尔代数上内动机图型为下向森林的充分必要条件,给出了树型内动机中每一层节点数的计算公式,进而证明了有限布尔代数上的非可逆内动机图型为恰等叉支下向树的充分必要条件。     

Abstract Regular Tree Model Checking

Regular (tree) model checking (RMC) is a promising generic method for formal verification of infinite-state systems. It encodes configurations of systems as words or trees over a suitable alphabet, possibly infinite sets of configurations as finite word or tree automata, and operations of the systems being examined as finite word or tree transducers. The reachability set is then computed by a repeated application of the transducers on the automata representing the currently known set of reachable configurations. In order to facilitate termination of RMC, various acceleration schemas have been proposed. One of them is a combination of RMC with the abstract-check-refine paradigm yielding the so-called abstract regular model checking (ARMC). ARMC has originally been proposed for word automata and transducers only and thus for dealing with systems with linear (or easily linearisable) structure. In this paper, we propose a generalisation of ARMC to the case of dealing with trees which arise naturally in a lot of modelling and verification contexts. In particular, we first propose abstractions of tree automata based on collapsing their states having an equal language of trees up to some bounded height. Then, we propose an abstraction based on collapsing states having a non-empty intersection (and thus “satisfying”) the same bottom-up tree “predicate” languages. Finally, we show on several examples that the methods we propose give us very encouraging verification results.     

Closure properties and decision problems of dag automata

Tree automata are widely used in various contexts. They are closed under boolean operations and their emptiness problem is decidable in polynomial time. Dag automata are natural extensions of tree automata, operating on dags instead of on trees; they can also be used for solving problems. Our purpose in this paper is to show that algebraically they behave differently: the class of dag automata is not closed under complementation, dag automata are not determinizable, their membership problem is NP-complete, the universality problem is undecidable, and the emptiness problem is NP-complete even for deterministic labeled dag automata.     

Two collapsing hierarchies of subregularly tree controlled languages

Tree controlled grammars are context-free grammars where the associated language only contains those terminal words which have a derivation where the word of any level of the corresponding derivation tree belongs to a given regular language. In this paper, we consider first as control sets such regular languages which can be represented by finite unions of monoids. We show that the corresponding hierarchy of tree controlled languages collapses already at the second level. Second, we restrict the number of states allowed in the accepting automaton of the regular control language. We prove that the associated hierarchy has at most five levels.     

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.     

Input-trees of finite automata and application to cryptanalysis

In this paper,Weights of output set and of input set for finite automata are discussed.For a weakly invertible finite automaton,we prove that for states with minimal output weight,the distruibution of input sets is uniform.Then for a kind of compound finite automata,we give weights of output set and of input set explicitly,and a characterization of their input-trees.For finite automaton public key cryptosystems,of which automata in public keys belong to such a kind of compound finite automata,we evaluate search amounts of exhaust search algorithms in average case and in worse case for both encryption and signature,and success ful probabilities of stochastic search algorithms for both encryption and signature.In addition,a result on mutual invertibility of inite automata is also given.     

Blocking of group automata. II. Mutual interlocking

Groups of automata formed by mutually interlocking connections of permutation automata are considered. Groups of maximal mutually interlocking connections of any permutation automata are found. The notion of simulation of a finite automaton by a semigroup of transactions of another automaton is introduced. An algorithm for construction of the model of finite permutation automaton using mutually interlocking connections of permutation triggers is given.