English

Minimization of visibly pushdown automata is NP-complete

Formal Languages and Automata Theory 2023-06-22 v3

Abstract

We show that the minimization of visibly pushdown automata is NP-complete. This result is obtained by introducing immersions, that recognize multiple languages (over a usual, non-visible alphabet) using a common deterministic transition graph, such that each language is associated with an initial state and a set of final states. We show that minimizing immersions is NP-complete, and reduce this problem to the minimization of visibly pushdown automata.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.09563,
  title  = {Minimization of visibly pushdown automata is NP-complete},
  author = {Olivier Gauwin and Anca Muscholl and Michael Raskin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.09563},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:27:38.830Z