We introduce (weighted) rational expressions to denote series over Cartesian products of monoids. To this end, we propose the operator $|$ to build multitape expressions such as $(a^+|x + b^+|y)^*$. We define expansions, which generalize the concept of derivative of a rational expression, but relieved from the need of a free monoid. We propose an algorithm based on expansions to build multitape automata from multitape expressions.
The decidability of determining equivalence of deterministic multitape automata (or transducers) was a longstanding open problem until it was resolved by Harju and Karhumäki in the early 1990s. Their proof of decidability yields a co_NP upper bound, but apparently not much more is known about the complexity of the problem. In this paper we give an alternative proof of decidability, which follows the basic strategy of Harju and Karhumaki but replaces their use of group theory with results on matrix algebras. From our proof we obtain a simple randomised algorithm for deciding language equivalenc…
Finite state transducers, multitape automata and weighted automata have a lot in common. By studying their universal foundations, one can discover some new insights into all of them. The main result presented here is the introduction of lexicographic finite state transducers, that could be seen as intermediate model between multitape automata and weighted transducers. Their most significant advantage is being equivalent, but often exponentially smaller than even smallest nondeterministic automata without weights. Lexicographic transducers were discovered by taking inspiration from Eilenberg's …
Quantum finite automata were introduced by C.Moore, J.P. Crutchfield, and by A.Kondacs and J.Watrous. This notion is not a generalization of the deterministic finite automata. Moreover, it was proved that not all regular languages can be recognized by quantum finite automata. A.Ambainis and R.Freivalds proved that for some languages quantum finite automata may be exponentially more concise rather than both deterministic and probabilistic finite automata. In this paper we introduce the notion of quantum finite multitape automata and prove that there is a language recognized by a quantum finite …
This text is an extended version of the chapter 'Automata and rational expressions' in the AutoMathA Handbook that will appear soon, published by the European Science Foundation and edited by JeanEricPin.
We present an algorithm to build an automaton from a rational expression. This approach introduces support for extended weighted expressions. Inspired by derived-term based algorithms, its core relies on a different construct, rational expansions. We introduce an inductive algorithm to compute the expansion of an expression from which the automaton follows. This algorithm is independent of the size of the alphabet, and actually even supports infinite alphabets. It can easily be accommodated to generate deterministic (weighted) automata. These constructs are implemented in Vcsn, a free-software…
The Kleene theorem establishes a fundamental link between automata and expressions over the free monoid. Numerous generalisations of this result exist in the literature. Lifting this result to a weighted setting has been widely studied. Moreover, different monoids can be considered: for instance, two-way automata, and even tree-walking automata, can be described by expressions using the free inverse monoid. In the present work, we aim at combining both research directions and consider weighted extensions of automata and expressions over a class of monoids that we call pre-rational, generalisin…
Arden's Lemma is a classical result in language theory allowing the computation of a rational expression denoting the language recognized by a finite string automaton. In this paper we generalize this important lemma to the rational tree languages. Moreover, we propose also a construction of a rational tree expression which denotes the accepted tree language of a finite tree automaton.
We study the problem of constructing approximations to a weighted automaton. Weighted finite automata (WFA) are closely related to the theory of rational series. A rational series is a function from strings to real numbers that can be computed by a finite WFA. Among others, this includes probability distributions generated by hidden Markov models and probabilistic automata. The relationship between rational series and WFA is analogous to the relationship between regular languages and ordinary automata. Associated with such rational series are infinite matrices called Hankel matrices which play…
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 rat…
We introduce a subclass of linear recurrence sequences which we call poly-rational sequences because they are denoted by rational expressions closed under sum and product. We show that this class is robust by giving several characterisations: polynomially ambiguous weighted automata, copyless cost-register automata, rational formal series, and linear recurrence sequences whose eigenvalues are roots of rational numbers.
We show that some results from the theory of group automata and monoid automata still hold for more general classes of monoids and models. Extending previous work for finite automata over commutative groups, we demonstrate a context-free language that can not be recognized by any rational monoid automaton over a finitely generated permutable monoid. We show that the class of languages recognized by rational monoid automata over finitely generated completely simple or completely 0-simple permutable monoids is a semi-linear full trio. Furthermore, we investigate valence pushdown automata, and pr…
We propose a novel automata model over the alphabet of rational numbers, which we call register automata over the rationals (RA-Q). It reads a sequence of rational numbers and outputs another rational number. RA-Q is an extension of the well-known register automata (RA) over infinite alphabets, which are finite automata equipped with a finite number of registers/variables for storing values. Like in the standard RA, the RA-Q model allows both equality and ordering tests between values. It, moreover, allows to perform linear arithmetic between certain variables. The model is quite expressive: i…
We consider linear cost-register automata (equivalent to weighted automata) over the semiring of nonnegative rationals, which generalise probabilistic automata. The two problems of boundedness and zero isolation ask whether there is a sequence of words that converge to infinity and to zero, respectively. In the general model both problems are undecidable so we focus on the copyless linear restriction. There, we show that the boundedness problem is decidable. As for the zero isolation problem we need to further restrict the class. We obtain a model, where zero isolation becomes equivalent to un…
We realize lamplighter groups $A\wr \mathbb Z$, with $A$ a finite abelian group, as automaton groups via affine transformations of power series rings with coefficients in a finite commutative ring. Our methods can realize $A\wr \mathbb Z$ as a bireversible automaton group if and only if the $2$-Sylow subgroup of $A$ has no multiplicity one summands in its expression as a direct sum of cyclic groups of order a power of $2$.
We investigate commutative images of languages recognised by register automata and grammars. Semi-linear and rational sets can be naturally extended to this setting by allowing for orbit-finite unions instead of only finite ones. We prove that commutative images of languages of one-register automata are not always semi-linear, but they are always rational. We also lift the latter result to grammars: commutative images of one-register context-free languages are rational, and in consequence commutatively equivalent to register automata. We conjecture analogous results for automata and grammars w…
This paper is concerned with the computational complexity of equivalence and minimisation for automata with transition weights in the field Q of rational numbers. We use polynomial identity testing and the Isolation Lemma to obtain complexity bounds, focussing on the class NC of problems within P solvable in polylogarithmic parallel time. For finite Q-weighted automata, we give a randomised NC procedure that either outputs that two automata are equivalent or returns a word on which they differ. We also give an NC procedure for deciding whether a given automaton is minimal, as well as a randomi…
We initiate the study of the verification power of AfAs as part of Arthur-Merlin (AM) proof systems. We show that every unary language is verified by a real-valued AfA verifier. Then, we focus on the verifiers restricted to have only integer-valued or rational-valued transitions. We observe that rational-valued verifiers can be simulated by integer-valued verifiers, and, their protocols can be simulated in nondeterministic polynomial time. We show that this bound tight by presenting an AfA verifier for NP-complete problem SUBSETSUM. We also show that AfAs can verify certain non-affine and non-…
In this paper, we give a Nivat-like characterization for weighted alternating automata over commutative semirings (WAFA). To this purpose we prove that weighted alternating can be characterized as the concatenation of weighted finite tree automata (WFTA) and a specific class of tree homomorphism. We show that the class of series recognized by weighted alternating automata is closed under inverses of homomorphisms, but not under homomorphisms. We give a logical characterization of weighted alternating automata, which uses weighted MSO logic for trees. Finally we investigate the strong connectio…
We define compact automata and show that every language has a unique minimal compact automaton. We also define recognition of languages by compact left semitopological monoids and construct the analogue of the syntactic monoid in this context. For rational languages this reduces to the usual theory of finite automata and finite monoids.
