English

Reachability in Vector Addition Systems is Ackermann-complete

Formal Languages and Automata Theory 2022-10-27 v4 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

Vector Addition Systems and equivalent Petri nets are a well established models of concurrency. The central algorithmic problem for Vector Addition Systems with a long research history is the reachability problem asking whether there exists a run from one given configuration to another. We settle its complexity to be Ackermann-complete thus closing the problem open for 45 years. In particular we prove that the problem is Fk\mathcal{F}_k-hard for Vector Addition Systems with States in dimension 6k6k, where Fk\mathcal{F}_k is the kk-th complexity class from the hierarchy of fast-growing complexity classes.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.13866,
  title  = {Reachability in Vector Addition Systems is Ackermann-complete},
  author = {Wojciech Czerwiński and Łukasz Orlikowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.13866},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:36:21.131Z