This paper discusses the hardness of finding minimal good-for-games (GFG) Buchi, Co-Buchi, and parity automata with state based acceptance. The problem appears to sit between finding small deterministic and finding small nondeterministic automata, where minimality is NP-complete and PSPACE-complete, respectively. However, recent work of Radi and Kupferman has shown that minimising Co-Buchi automata with transition based acceptance is tractable, which suggests that the complexity of minimising GFG automata might be cheaper than minimising deterministic automata.
We show for the standard state based acceptance that the minimality of a GFG automaton is NP-complete for Buchi, Co-Buchi, and parity GFG automata. The proofs are a surprisingly straight forward generalisation of the proofs from deterministic Buchi automata: they use a similar reductions, and the same hard class of languages.
We consider the state-minimisation problem for weighted and probabilistic automata. We provide a numerically stable polynomial-time minimisation algorithm for weighted automata, with guaranteed bounds on the numerical error when run with floating-point arithmetic. Our algorithm can also be used for "lossy" minimisation with bounded error. We show an application in image compression. In the second part of the paper we study the complexity of the minimisation problem for probabilistic automata. We prove that the problem is NP-hard and in PSPACE, improving a recent EXPTIME-result.
The problem of k-minimisation for a DFA M is the computation of a smallest DFA N (where the size |M| of a DFA M is the size of the domain of the transition function) such that their recognized languages differ only on words of length less than k. The previously best algorithm, which runs in time O(|M| log^2 n) where n is the number of states, is extended to DFAs with partial transition functions. Moreover, a faster O(|M| log n) algorithm for DFAs that recognise finite languages is presented. In comparison to the previous algorithm for total DFAs, the new algorithm is much simpler and allows th…
In this report we study the problem of minimising deterministic automata over finite and infinite words. Deterministic finite automata are the simplest devices to recognise regular languages, and deterministic Buchi, Co-Buchi, and parity automata play a similar role in the recognition of ω-regular languages. While it is well known that the minimisation of deterministic finite and weak automata is cheap, the complexity of minimising deterministic Buchi and parity automata has remained an open challenge. We establish the NP-completeness of these problems. A second contribution of this report is …
We consider the problem of minimising the number of states in a multiplicity tree automaton over the field of rational numbers. We give a minimisation algorithm that runs in polynomial time assuming unit-cost arithmetic. We also show that a polynomial bound in the standard Turing model would require a breakthrough in the complexity of polynomial identity testing by proving that the latter problem is logspace equivalent to the decision version of minimisation. The developed techniques also improve the state of the art in multiplicity word automata: we give an NC algorithm for minimising multipl…
In this paper, we look at good-for-games Rabin automata that recognise a Muller language (a language that is entirely characterised by the set of letters that appear infinitely often in each word). We establish that minimal such automata are exactly of the same size as the minimal memory required for winning Muller games that have this language as their winning condition. We show how to effectively construct such minimal automata. Finally, we establish that these automata can be exponentially more succinct than equivalent deterministic ones, thus proving as a consequence that chromatic memory …
A word automaton recognizing a language $L$ is good for games (GFG) if its composition with any game with winning condition $L$ preserves the game's winner. While all deterministic automata are GFG, some nondeterministic automata are not. There are various other properties that are used in the literature for defining that a nondeterministic automaton is GFG, including "history-deterministic", "compliant with some letter game", "good for trees", and "good for composition with other automata". The equivalence of these properties has not been formally shown. We generalize all of these definitions…
Automata models between determinism and nondeterminism/alternations can retain some of the algorithmic properties of deterministic automata while enjoying some of the expressiveness and succinctness of nondeterminism. We study three closely related such models -- history determinism, good for gameness and determinisability by pruning -- on quantitative automata. While in the Boolean setting, history determinism and good for gameness coincide, we show that this is no longer the case in the quantitative setting: good for gameness is broader than history determinism, and coincides with a relaxed …
For a given regular language of infinite trees, one can ask about the minimal number of priorities needed to recognize this language with a non-deterministic, alternating, or weak alternating parity automaton. These questions are known as, respectively, the non-deterministic, alternating, and weak Rabin-Mostowski index problems. Whether they can be answered effectively is a long-standing open problem, solved so far only for languages recognizable by deterministic automata (the alternating variant trivializes). We investigate a wider class of regular languages, recognizable by so-called game au…
We study alternating good-for-games (GFG) automata, i.e., alternating automata where both conjunctive and disjunctive choices can be resolved in an online manner, without knowledge of the suffix of the input word still to be read. We show that they can be exponentially more succinct than both their nondeterministic and universal counterparts. Furthermore, we lift many results from nondeterministic parity GFG automata to alternating ones: a single exponential determinisation procedure, an Exptime upper bound to the GFGness problem, a PTime algorithm for the GFGness problem of weak automata, and…
In GFG automata, it is possible to resolve nondeterminism in a way that only depends on the past and still accepts all the words in the language. The motivation for GFG automata comes from their adequacy for games and synthesis, wherein general nondeterminism is inappropriate. We continue the ongoing effort of studying the power of nondeterminism in GFG automata. Initial indications have hinted that every GFG automaton embodies a deterministic one. Today we know that this is not the case, and in fact GFG automata may be exponentially more succinct than deterministic ones. We focus on the typen…
We study alternating parity good-for-games (GFG) automata, i.e., alternating parity automata where both conjunctive and disjunctive choices can be resolved in an online manner, without knowledge of the suffix of the input word still to be read. We show that they can be exponentially more succinct than both their nondeterministic and universal counterparts. Furthermore, we present a single exponential determinisation procedure and an Exptime upper bound to the problem of recognising whether an alternating automaton is GFG. We also study the complexity of deciding "half-GFGness", a property spec…
Recently, five quasi-polynomial-time algorithms solving parity games were proposed. We elaborate on one of the algorithms, by Lehtinen (2018). Czerwiński et al. (2019) observe that four of the algorithms can be expressed as constructions of separating automata (of quasi-polynomial size), that is, automata that accept all plays decisively won by one of the players, and rejecting all plays decisively won by the other player. The separating automata corresponding to three of the algorithms are deterministic, and it is clear that deterministic separating automata can be used to solve parity games.…
We study reachability games on recursive timed automata (RTA) that generalize Alur-Dill timed automata with recursive procedure invocation mechanism similar to recursive state machines. It is known that deciding the winner in reachability games on RTA is undecidable for automata with two or more clocks, while the problem is decidable for automata with only one clock. Ouaknine and Worrell recently proposed a time-bounded theory of real-time verification by claiming that restriction to bounded-time recovers decidability for several key decision problem related to real-time verification. We revis…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2015). The symposium took place in Genoa, Italy, on the 21st and 22nd of September 2015. The proceedings of the symposium contain the abstracts of three invited talks and 13 papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers cover algorithmic game theory, automata theory, formal verification, and modal and temporal logics.
$μ$-Calculus and automata on infinite trees are complementary ways of describing infinite tree languages. The correspondence between $μ$-Calculus and alternating tree automaton is used to solve the satisfiability and model checking problems by compiling the modal $μ$-Calculus formula into an alternating tree automata. Thus advocating an automaton model specially tailored for working with modal $μ$-Calculus. The advantage of the automaton model is its ability to deal with arbitrary branching in a much simpler way as compare to the one proposed by Janin and Walukiewicz. Both problems (i.e., mode…
In this paper, we relate the problem of determining the chromatic memory requirements of Muller conditions with the minimisation of transition-based Rabin automata. Our first contribution is a proof of the NP-completeness of the minimisation of transition-based Rabin automata. Our second contribution concerns the memory requirements of games over graphs using Muller conditions. A memory structure is a finite state machine that implements a strategy and is updated after reading the edges of the game; the special case of chromatic memories being those structures whose update function only consid…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2018). The symposium took place in Saarbrücken, Germany, from the 26th to the 28th of September 2018. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. …
This volume contains the proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2021). The aim of GandALF 2021 symposium is to bring together researchers from academia and industry which are actively working in the fields of Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification. The idea is to cover an ample spectrum of themes, ranging from theory to applications, and stimulate cross-fertilization.
We consider infinite-state Attacker-Defender games with reachability objectives. The results of the paper are twofold. Firstly we prove a new language-theoretic result for weighted automata on infinite words and show its encoding into the framework of Attacker-Defender games. Secondly we use this novel concept to prove undecidability for checking existence of a winning strategy in several low-dimensional mathematical games including vector reachability games, word games and braid games.
This volume contains the proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2022). The aim of GandALF 2022 symposium is to bring together researchers from academia and industry which are actively working in the fields of Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification. The idea is to cover an ample spectrum of themes, ranging from theory to applications, and stimulate cross-fertilization.
We recently introduced p-automata, automata that read discrete-time Markov chains. We used turn-based stochastic parity games to define acceptance of Markov chains by a subclass of p-automata. Definition of acceptance required a cumbersome and complicated reduction to a series of turn-based stochastic parity games. The reduction could not support acceptance by general p-automata, which was left undefined as there was no notion of games that supported it. Here we generalize two-player games by adding a structural acceptance condition called obligations. Obligations are orthogonal to the linear …
In this work, we design the game semantics for timed equivalences and preorders of timed processes. The timed games corresponding to the various timed relations form a hierarchy. These games are similar to Stirling's bisimulation games. If it is the case that the existence of a winning strategy for the defender in a game ${\cal G}_1$ implies that there exists a winning strategy for the defender in another game ${\cal G}_2$, then the relation that corresponds to ${\cal G}_1$ is stronger than the relation corresponding to ${\cal G}_2$. The game hierarchy also throws light into several timed rela…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2014). The symposium took place in Verona, Italy, from 10th to 12th of September 2014. The proceedings of the symposium contain the abstracts of three invited talks and 19 papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers range over a wide spectrum, including algorithmic and behavioral game theory, game semantics, formal languages and automata theory, modal and temporal logics, software veri…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2013). The symposium took place in Borca di Cadore, Italy, from 29th to 31st of August 2013. The proceedings of the symposium contain the abstracts of three invited talks and 17 papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers range over a wide spectrum, including algorithmic and behavioral game theory, game semantics, formal languages and automata theory, modal and temporal logics, softwa…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2016). The symposium took place in Catania, Italy, from the 14th to the 16th of September 2016. The proceedings of the symposium contain abstracts of the 3 invited talks and 21 full papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers cover algorithmic game theory, automata theory, synthesis, formal verification, and dynamic, modal and temporal logics.
Obtaining accepting lassos, witnesses and winning strategies in omega-automata and games with omega-regular winning conditions is an integral part of many formal methods commonly found in practice today. Despite the fact that in most applications, the lassos, witnesses and strategies found should be as small as possible, little is known about the hardness of obtaining small such certificates. In this paper, we survey the known hardness results and complete the complexity landscape for the cases not considered in the literature so far. We pay particular attention to the approximation hardness o…
Mean-payoff games on timed automata are played on the infinite weighted graph of configurations of priced timed automata between two players, Player Min and Player Max, by moving a token along the states of the graph to form an infinite run. The goal of Player Min is to minimize the limit average weight of the run, while the goal of the Player Max is the opposite. Brenguier, Cassez, and Raskin recently studied a variation of these games and showed that mean-payoff games are undecidable for timed automata with five or more clocks. We refine this result by proving the undecidability of mean-payo…
Energy games are a well-studied class of 2-player turn-based games on a finite graph where transitions are labeled with integer vectors which represent changes in a multidimensional resource (the energy). One player tries to keep the cumulative changes non-negative in every component while the other tries to frustrate this. We consider generalized energy games played on infinite game graphs induced by pushdown automata (modelling recursion) or their subclass of one-counter automata. Our main result is that energy games are decidable in the case where the game graph is induced by a one-counter …
This volume contains the proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2020). The symposium took place as a fully online event on September 21-22, 2020. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. GandALF has a truly i…
In this paper we present a unifying approach for deciding various bisimulations, simulation equivalences and preorders between two timed automata states. We propose a zone based method for deciding these relations in which we eliminate an explicit product construction of the region graphs or the zone graphs as in the classical methods. Our method is also generic and can be used to decide several timed relations. We also present a game characterization for these timed relations and show that the game hierarchy reflects the hierarchy of the timed relations. One can obtain an infinite game hierar…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2019). The symposium took place in Bordeaux, France, from the 2nd to the 3rd of September 2010. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. GandAL…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2017). The symposium took place in Roma, Italy, from the 20th to the 22nd of September 2017. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. GandALF …
This volume contains the Proceedings of the first Symposium on "Games, Automata, Logic, and Formal Verification (GandALF)", held in Minori (Amalfi coast), Italy, 17-18 June 2010. The symposium has been promoted by a number of Italian computer scientists interested in game theory, mathematical logic, automata theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. It covers a large spectrum of research topics, ranging from theoretical aspects to concrete applications. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with a d…
The basis for most of the ideas mentioned in this paper is the theory of cellular automata. A cellular automata contains a regular grid of cells, with each cell having a pre-defined set of finite states. The initial state is determined at time/state zero. At this point all the cells are assigned their respective starting states. The automata is defined by a set of simple rules that decide the subsequent states of the cells. We aim to create a cellular automata of prime numbers and come up with some axioms, theorems and conjectures for the same.
Simulation relations are an important tool in automata theory because they provide efficiently computable approximations to language inclusion. In recent years, extensions of ordinary simulations have been studied, for instance multi-pebble and multi-letter simulations which yield better approximations and are still polynomial-time computable. In this paper we study the limitations of approximating language inclusion in this way: we introduce a natural extension of multi-letter simulations called buffered simulations. They are based on a simulation game in which the two players share a FIFO bu…
We consider the problem of computing the probability of regular languages of infinite trees with respect to the natural coin-flipping measure. We propose an algorithm which computes the probability of languages recognizable by \emph{game automata}. In particular this algorithm is applicable to all deterministic automata. We then use the algorithm to prove through examples three properties of measure: (1) there exist regular sets having irrational probability, (2) there exist comeager regular sets having probability $0$ and (3) the probability of \emph{game languages} $W_{i,k}$, from automata t…
We study finite automata running over infinite binary trees. A run of such an automaton is usually said to be accepting if all its branches are accepting. In this article, we relax the notion of accepting run by allowing a certain quantity of rejecting branches. More precisely we study the following criteria for a run to be accepting: - it contains at most finitely (resp countably) many rejecting branches; - it contains infinitely (resp uncountably) many accepting branches; - the set of accepting branches is topologically "big". In all situations we provide a simple acceptance game that later …
This paper studies a large class of two-player perfect-information turn-based parity games on infinite graphs, namely those generated by collapsible pushdown automata. The main motivation for studying these games comes from the connections from collapsible pushdown automata and higher-order recursion schemes, both models being equi-expressive for generating infinite trees. Our main result is to establish the decidability of such games and to provide an effective representation of the winning region as well as of a winning strategy. Thus, the results obtained here provide all necessary tools fo…
We introduce a way to parameterize automata and games on finite graphs with natural numbers. The parameters are accessed essentially by allowing counting down from the parameter value to 0 and branching depending on whether 0 has been reached. The main technical result is that in games, a player can win for some values of the parameters at all, if she can win for some values below an exponential bound. For many winning conditions, this implies decidability of any statements about a player being able to win with arbitrary quantification over the parameter values. While the result seems broadly …
We show that solving delay games with winning conditions given by deterministic and nondeterministic weak Muller automata is 2EXPTIME-complete respectively 3EXPTIME-complete. Furthermore, doubly and triply exponential lookahead is necessary and sufficient to win such games. These results are the first that show that the succinctness of the automata types used to specify the winning conditions has an influence on the complexity of these problems.
