English

The CFG Complexity of Singleton Sets

Formal Languages and Automata Theory 2024-06-04 v2

Abstract

Let G be a context-free grammar (CFG) in Chomsky normal form. We take the number of rules in G to be the size of G. We also assume all CFGs are in Chomsky normal form. We consider the question of, given a string w of length n, what is the smallest CFG such that L(G)={w}? We show the following: 1) For all w, |w|=n, there is a CFG of size with O(n/log n) rules, such that L(G)={w}. 2) There exists a string w, |w|=n, such that every CFG G with L(G)={w} is of size Omega(n/log n). We give two proofs of: one nonconstructive, the other constructive.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.20026,
  title  = {The CFG Complexity of Singleton Sets},
  author = {Lance Fortnow and William Gasarch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.20026},
  year   = {2024}
}

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R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:47:08.760Z