arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Piotr Hofman.
One-counter nets (OCN) are finite automata equipped with a counter that can store non-negative integer values, and that cannot be tested for zero. Equivalently, these are exactly 1-dimensional vector addition systems with states. We show that both strong and weak simulation preorder on OCN are PSPACE-complete.
We study the computational and descriptional complexity of the following transformation: Given a one-counter automaton (OCA) A, construct a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) B that recognizes an abstraction of the language L(A): its (1) downward closure, (2) upward closure, or (3) Parikh image. For the Parikh image over a fixed alphabet and for the upward and downward closures, we find polynomial-time algorithms that compute such an NFA. For the Parikh image with the alphabet as part of the input, we find a quasi-polynomial time algorithm and prove a completeness result: we construct a sequence of OCA that admits a polynomial-time algorithm iff there is one for all OCA. For all three abstractions, it was previously unknown if appropriate NFA of sub-exponential size exist.
We show that the language equivalence problem for regular and context-free commutative grammars is coNEXP-complete. In addition, our lower bound immediately yields further coNEXP-completeness results for equivalence problems for communication-free Petri nets and reversal-bounded counter automata. Moreover, we improve both lower and upper bounds for language equivalence for exponent-sensitive commutative grammars.
One-Counter nets (OCN) consist of a nondeterministic finite control and a single integer counter that cannot be fully tested for zero. They form a natural subclass of both One-Counter Automata, which allow zero-tests and Petri Nets/VASS, which allow multiple such weak counters. The trace inclusion problem has recently been shown to be undecidable for OCN. In this paper, we contrast the complexity of two natural restrictions which imply decidability. First, we show that trace inclusion between an OCN and a deterministic OCN is NL-complete, even with arbitrary binary-encoded initial counter-values as part of the input. Secondly, we show Ackermannian completeness of for the trace universality problem of nondeterministic OCN. This problem is equivalent to checking trace inclusion between a finite and a OCN-process.
One-counter nets (OCN) are Petri nets with exactly one unbounded place. They are equivalent to a subclass of one-counter automata with only a weak test for zero. We show that weak simulation preorder is decidable for OCN and that weak simulation approximants do not converge at level omega, but only at omega^2. In contrast, other semantic relations like weak bisimulation are undecidable for OCN, and so are weak (and strong) trace inclusion.
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 automaton and the energy is one-dimensional. On the other hand, every further generalization is undecidable: Energy games on one-counter automata with a 2-dimensional energy are undecidable, and energy games on pushdown automata are undecidable even if the energy is one-dimensional. Furthermore, we show that energy games and simulation games are inter-reducible, and thus we additionally obtain several new (un)decidability results for the problem of checking simulation preorder between pushdown automata and vector addition systems.
One-counter nets (OCN) are Petri nets with exactly one unbounded place. They are equivalent to a subclass of one-counter automata with just a weak test for zero. Unlike many other semantic equivalences, strong and weak simulation preorder are decidable for OCN, but the computational complexity was an open problem. We show that both strong and weak simulation preorder on OCN are PSPACE-complete.
This paper is about reachability analysis in a restricted subclass of multi-pushdown automata. We assume that the control states of an automaton are partially ordered, and all transitions of an automaton go downwards with respect to the order. We prove decidability of the reachability problem, and computability of the backward reachability set. As the main contribution, we identify relevant subclasses where the reachability problem becomes NP-complete. This matches the complexity of the same problem for communication-free vector addition systems, a special case of stateless multi-pushdown automata.
This paper explores the well known approximation approach to decide weak bisimilarity of Basic Parallel Processes. We look into how different refinement functions can be used to prove weak bisimilarity decidable for certain subclasses. We also show their limitations for the general case. In particular, we show a lower bound of ω \ast ω for the approximants which allow weak steps and a lower bound of ω + ω for the approximants that allow sequences of actions. The former lower bound negatively answers the open question of Jančar and Hirshfeld.
Timed automata and register automata are well-known models of computation over timed and data words respectively. The former has clocks that allow to test the lapse of time between two events, whilst the latter includes registers that can store data values for later comparison. Although these two models behave in appearance differently, several decision problems have the same (un)decidability and complexity results for both models. As a prominent example, emptiness is decidable for alternating automata with one clock or register, both with non-primitive recursive complexity. This is not by chance. This work confirms that there is indeed a tight relationship between the two models. We show that a run of a timed automaton can be simulated by a register automaton, and conversely that a run of a register automaton can be simulated by a timed automaton. Our results allow to transfer complexity and decidability results back and forth between these two kinds of models. We justify the usefulness of these reductions by obtaining new results on register automata.