Related papers: Finding passwords by random walks: How long does i…
We consider the issue of direct access to any letter of a sequence encoded with a variable length code and stored in the computer's memory, which is a special case of the random access problem to compressed memory. The characteristics…
We give an algorithm to enumerate the results on trees of monadic second-order (MSO) queries represented by nondeterministic tree automata. After linear time preprocessing (in the input tree), we can enumerate answers with linear delay (in…
In a recent article by Chapuy and Perarnau, it was shown that a uniformly chosen automaton on $n$ states with a $2$-letter alphabet has a synchronizing word of length $O(\sqrt{n}\log n)$ with high probability. In this note, we improve this…
A weighted string over an alphabet of size $\sigma$ is a string in which a set of letters may occur at each position with respective occurrence probabilities. Weighted strings, also known as position weight matrices or uncertain sequences,…
Wordle is a single-player word-based game where the objective is to guess the 5-letter word in a maximum of 6 tries. The game was released to the public in October 2021 and has since gained popularity with people competing against each…
Consider infinite random words over a finite alphabet where the letters occur as an i.i.d. sequence according to some arbitrary distribution on the alphabet. The expectation and the variance of the waiting time for the first completed…
We study algorithms for solving three problems on strings. The first one is the Most Frequently String Search Problem. The problem is the following. Assume that we have a sequence of $n$ strings of length $k$. The problem is finding the…
Given a string $S$ of length $n$, the classic string indexing problem is to preprocess $S$ into a compact data structure that supports efficient subsequent pattern queries. In the \emph{deterministic} variant the goal is to solve the string…
We generalise a multiple string pattern matching algorithm, recently proposed by Fredriksson and Grabowski [J. Discr. Alg. 7, 2009], to deal with arbitrary dictionaries on an alphabet of size $s$. If $r_m$ is the number of words of length…
We report on an astonishing ability of large language models (LLMs) to make sense of "Jabberwocky" language in which most or all content words have been randomly replaced by nonsense strings, e.g., translating "He dwushed a ghanc zawk" to…
For the first time, we report gender bias in people's choice and use of password managers, through a semi-structured interview ($n=18$) and a questionnaire-based survey ($n=200$, conducted `in the wild'). Not only do women and men prefer…
Passwords are the most common mechanism for authenticating users online. However, studies have shown that users find it difficult to create and manage secure passwords. To that end, passphrases are often recommended as a usable alternative…
Continuous-time quantum walks are natural tools for spatial search, where one searches for a marked vertex in a graph. Sometimes, the structure of the graph causes the walker to get trapped, such that the probability of finding the marked…
We consider the set of finite random words $\mathcal A^\star$, with independent letters drawn from a finite or infinite totally ordered alphabet according to a general probability distribution. On a specific subset of $\mathcal A^\star$,…
Password users frequently employ passwords that are too simple, or they just reuse passwords for multiple websites. A common complaint is that utilizing secure passwords is too difficult. One possible solution to this problem is to use a…
We prove that a uniformly random automaton with $n$ states on a 2-letter alphabet has a synchronizing word of length $O(n^{1/2}\log n)$ with high probability (w.h.p.). That is to say, w.h.p. there exists a word $\omega$ of such length, and…
Text password has served as the most popular method for user authentication so far, and is not likely to be totally replaced in foreseeable future. Password authentication offers several desirable properties (e.g., low-cost, highly…
In this paper, we examine how large language models (LLMs) solve multi-step problems under a language agent framework with three components: a generator, a discriminator, and a planning method. We investigate the practical utility of two…
We present an in-depth analysis on the strength of the almost 10,000 passwords from users of an instant messaging server in Italy. We estimate the strength of those passwords, and compare the effectiveness of state-of-the-art attack methods…
Although real-world text datasets, such as DNA sequences, are far from being uniformly random, average-case string searching algorithms perform significantly better than worst-case ones in most applications of interest. In this paper, we…