Related papers: A Decision Problem for Ultimately Periodic Sets in…
A regular language $L$ is said to be prime, if it is not the product of two non-trivial languages. Martens et al. settled the exact complexity of deciding primality for deterministic finite automata in 2010. For finite languages, Mateescu…
The undecidability of basic decision problems for general FIFO machines such as reachability and unboundedness is well-known. In this paper, we provide an underapproximation for the general model by considering only runs that are…
We present a quite curious generalization of multi-step Fibonacci numbers. For any positive rational $q$, we enumerate binary words of length $n$ whose maximal factors of the form $0^a1^b$ satisfy $a = 0$ or $aq > b$. When $q$ is an integer…
It is known that binary words containing no $k$ consecutive 1s are enumerated by $k$-step Fibonacci numbers. In this note we discuss the expected value of a random bit in a random word of length $n$ having this property.
We study three levels in a hierarchy of nondeterminism: A nondeterministic automaton $\mathcal{A}$ is determinizable by pruning (DBP) if we can obtain a deterministic automaton equivalent to $\mathcal{A}$ by removing some of its…
When $A$ and $B$ are subsets of the integers in $[1,X]$ and $[1,Y]$ respectively, with $|A| \geq \alpha X$ and $|B| \geq \beta X$, we show that the number of rational numbers expressible as $a/b$ with $(a,b)$ in $A \times B$ is $\gg (\alpha…
Systems of equations with sets of integers as unknowns are considered. It is shown that the class of sets representable by unique solutions of equations using the operations of union and addition $S+T=\makeset{m+n}{m \in S, \: n \in T}$ and…
For a complexity function $C$, the lower and upper $C$-complexity rates of an infinite word $\mathbf{x}$ are \[ \underline{C}(\mathbf x)=\liminf_{n\to\infty} \frac{C(\mathbf{x}\upharpoonright n)}n,\quad \overline{C}(\mathbf…
The article defines and studies the genus of finite state deterministic automata (FSA) and regular languages. Indeed, a FSA can be seen as a graph for which the notion of genus arises. At the same time, a FSA has a semantics via its…
Motivated by work on bio-operations on DNA strings, we consider an outfix-guided insertion operation that can be viewed as a generalization of the overlap assembly operation on strings studied previously. As the main result we construct a…
Every language recognized by a non-deterministic finite automaton can be recognized by a deterministic automaton, at the cost of a potential increase of the number of states, which in the worst case can go from $n$ states to $2^n$ states.…
A Metis design is one for which v=r+k+1. This paper deals with Metis designs that are quasi-residual. The parameters of such designs and the corresponding symmetric designs can be expressed by Fibonacci numbers. Although the question of…
We examine questions involving nondeterministic finite automata where all states are final, initial, or both initial and final. First, we prove hardness results for the nonuniversality and inequivalence problems for these NFAs. Next, we…
Let (F_n^{(k)})_{n\geq -(k-2)} be the k-generalized Fibonacci sequence, defined as the linear recurrence sequence whose first k terms are \(0, 0, \ldots, 0, 1\), and whose subsequent terms are determined by the sum of the preceding k terms.…
Two languages are separable by a piecewise testable language if and only if there exists no infinite tower between them. An infinite tower is an infinite sequence of strings alternating between the two languages such that every string is a…
An automaton is unambiguous if for every input it has at most one accepting computation. An automaton is k-ambiguous (for k > 0) if for every input it has at most k accepting computations. An automaton is boundedly ambiguous if it is…
We look at a class of transcendental real numbers xi which, together with their square, satisfy some extremal property of simultaneous approximation by rational numbers with the same denominator. We give a sufficient condition for such a…
We show that for any $i > 0$, it is decidable, given a regular language, whether it is expressible in the $\Sigma_i[<]$ fragment of first-order logic FO[<]. This settles a question open since 1971. Our main technical result relies on the…
In the paper, we study behavior of discrete dynamical systems (automata) w.r.t. transitivity; that is, speaking loosely, we consider how diverse may be behavior of the system w.r.t. variety of word transformations performed by the system:…
We consider a general class of decision problems concerning formal languages, called ``(one-dimensional) unboundedness predicates'', for automata that feature reversal-bounded counters (RBCA). We show that each problem in this class reduces…