arXiv subjects

Vincent Penelle

Publications and source records attributed to Vincent Penelle.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Learning Deterministic One-Counter Automata in Polynomial Time

We give an active learning algorithm for deterministic one-counter automata (DOCAs) where the learner can ask the teacher membership and minimal equivalence queries. The algorithm called OL* learns a DOCA in time polynomial in the size of the smallest DOCA, recognising the target language. All existing algorithms for learning DOCAs, even for the subclasses of deterministic real-time one-counter automata (DROCAs) and visibly one-counter automata (VOCAs), in the worst case, run in exponential time with respect to the size of the DOCA under learning. Furthermore, previous learning algorithms are ``grey-box'' algorithms relying on an additional query type - counter value query - where the teacher returns the counter value reached on reading a given word. In contrast, our algorithm is a ``black-box'' algorithm. It is known that the minimisation of VOCAs is NP-hard. However, OL* can be used for approximate minimisation of DOCAs. In this case, the output size is at most polynomial in the size of a minimal DOCA.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2024

Learning real-time one-counter automata using polynomially many queries

In this paper, we introduce a novel method for active learning of deterministic real-time one-counter automata (DROCA). The existing techniques for learning DROCA rely on observing the behaviour of the DROCA up to exponentially large counter-values. Our algorithm eliminates this need and requires only a polynomial number of queries. Additionally, our method differs from existing techniques as we learn a minimal counter-synchronous DROCA, resulting in much smaller counter-examples on equivalence queries. Learning a minimal counter-synchronous DROCA cannot be done in polynomial time unless P = NP, even in the case of visibly one-counter automata. We use a SAT solver to overcome this difficulty. The solver is used to compute a minimal separating DFA from a given set of positive and negative samples. We prove that the equivalence of two counter-synchronous DROCAs can be checked significantly faster than that of general DROCAs. For visibly one-counter automata, we have discovered an even faster algorithm for equivalence checking. We implemented the proposed learning algorithm and tested it on randomly generated DROCAs. Our evaluations show that the proposed method outperforms the existing techniques on the test set.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2024

Equivalence of Deterministic Weighted Real-time One-Counter Automata

This paper introduces deterministic weighted real-time one-counter automaton (DWROCA). A DWROCA is a deterministic real-time one-counter automaton whose transitions are assigned a weight from a field. Two DWROCAs are equivalent if every word accepted by one is accepted by the other with the same weight. DWROCA is a sub-class of weighted one-counter automata with counter-determinacy. It is known that the equivalence problem for this model is in P. This paper gives a simpler proof and a better polynomial-time algorithm for checking the equivalence of two DWROCAs.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2023

Weighted One-Deterministic-Counter Automata

We introduce weighted one-deterministic-counter automata (ODCA). These are weighted one-counter automata (OCA) with the property of counter-determinacy, meaning that all paths labelled by a given word starting from the initial configuration have the same counter-effect. Weighted ODCAs are a strict extension of weighted visibly OCAs, which are weighted OCAs where the input alphabet determines the actions on the counter. We present a novel problem called the co-VS (complement to a vector space) reachability problem for weighted ODCAs over fields, which seeks to determine if there exists a run from a given configuration of a weighted ODCA to another configuration whose weight vector lies outside a given vector space. We establish two significant properties of witnesses for co-VS reachability: they satisfy a pseudo-pumping lemma, and the lexicographically minimal witness has a special form. It follows that the co-VS reachability problem is in P. These reachability problems help us to show that the equivalence problem of weighted ODCAs over fields is in P by adapting the equivalence proof of deterministic real-time OCAs by Böhm et al. This is a step towards resolving the open question of the equivalence problem of weighted OCAs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the regularity problem, the problem of checking whether an input weighted ODCA over a field is equivalent to some weighted automaton, is in P. Finally, we show that the covering and coverable equivalence problems for uninitialised weighted ODCAs are decidable in polynomial time. We also consider boolean ODCAs and show that the equivalence problem for (non-deterministic) boolean ODCAs is in PSPACE, whereas it is undecidable for (non-deterministic) boolean OCAs.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2020

Undecidability of a weak version of MSO+U

We prove the undecidability of MSO on $ω$-words extended with the second-order predicate $U_1(X)$ which says that the distance between consecutive positions in a set $X \subseteq \mathbb{N}$ is unbounded. This is achieved by showing that adding $U_1$ to MSO gives a logic with the same expressive power as $MSO+U$, a logic on $ω$-words with undecidable satisfiability. As a corollary, we prove that MSO on $ω$-words becomes undecidable if allowing to quantify over sets of positions that are ultimately periodic, i.e., sets $X$ such that for some positive integer $p$, ultimately either both or none of positions $x$ and $x+p$ belong to $X$.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2019

On Synthesis of Resynchronizers for Transducers

We study two formalisms that allow to compare transducers over words under origin semantics: rational and regular resynchronizers, and show that the former are captured by the latter. We then consider some instances of the following synthesis problem: given transducers T1, T2, construct a rational (resp. regular) resynchronizer R, if it exists, such that T1 is contained in R(T2) under the origin semantics. We show that synthesis of rational resynchronizers is decidable for functional, and even finite-valued, one-way transducers, and undecidable for relational one-way transducers. In the two-way setting, synthesis of regular resynchronizers is shown to be decidable for unambiguous two-way transducers. For larger classes of two-way transducers, the decidability status is open.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2018

Origin-equivalence of two-way word transducers is in PSPACE

We consider equivalence and containment problems for word transductions. These problems are known to be undecidable when the transductions are relations between words realized by non-deterministic transducers, and become decidable when restricting to functions from words to words. Here we prove that decidability can be equally recovered by adopting a slightly different, but natural semantics, called origin semantics and introduced by Bojanczyk in 2014. Specifically, we prove that the equivalence and containment problems for two-way word transducers in the origin semantics are PSPACE-complete. We also consider a variant of the containment problem where two-way transducers are compared under the origin semantics, but in a more relaxed way, by allowing distortions of the origins. The possible distortions are described by means of a resynchronization relation. We propose a logical formalism for describing a broad class of resynchronizations, while preserving the decidability of the variant of the containment problem.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2015

Annotated Stack Trees

Annotated pushdown automata provide an automaton model of higher-order recursion schemes, which may in turn be used to model higher-order programs for the purposes of verification. We study Ground Annotated Stack Tree Rewrite Systems -- a tree rewrite system where each node is labelled by the configuration of an annotated pushdown automaton. This allows the modelling of fork and join constructs in higher-order programs and is a generalisation of higher-order stack trees recently introduced by Penelle. We show that, given a regular set of annotated stack trees, the set of trees that can reach this set is also regular, and constructible in n-EXPTIME for an order-n system, which is optimal. We also show that our construction can be extended to allow a global state through which unrelated nodes of the tree may communicate, provided the number of communications is subject to a fixed bound.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2015

Rewriting Higher-Order Stack Trees

Higher-order pushdown systems and ground tree rewriting systems can be seen as extensions of suffix word rewriting systems. Both classes generate infinite graphs with interesting logical properties. Indeed, the model-checking problem for monadic second order logic (respectively first order logic with a reachability predicate) is decidable on such graphs. We unify both models by introducing the notion of stack trees, trees whose nodes are labelled by higher-order stacks, and define the corresponding class of higher-order ground tree rewriting systems. We show that these graphs retain the decidability properties of ground tree rewriting graphs while generalising the pushdown hierarchy of graphs.

cs.FL↗