English

Remarks on separating words

Formal Languages and Automata Theory 2011-03-24 v1 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

The separating words problem asks for the size of the smallest DFA needed to distinguish between two words of length <= n (by accepting one and rejecting the other). In this paper we survey what is known and unknown about the problem, consider some variations, and prove several new results.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1103.4513,
  title  = {Remarks on separating words},
  author = {Erik D. Demaine and Sarah Eisenstat and Jeffrey Shallit and David A. Wilson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.4513},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T17:43:27.563Z