Related papers: The amazing mixed polynomial closure and its appli…
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…
We investigate the polynomial closure operation (C -> Pol(C)) defined on classes of regular languages. We present an interesting and useful connection relating the separation problem for the class C and the membership problem for it…
We study a standard operator on classes of languages: unambiguous polynomial closure. We prove that for every class C of regular languages satisfying mild properties, the membership problem for its unambiguous polynomial closure UPol(C)…
We look at classes of languages associated to the fragment of first-order logic B{\Sigma}1 which disallows quantifier alternations. Each class is defined by choosing the set of predicates on positions that may be used. Two key such…
We investigate two operators on classes of regular languages: polynomial closure (Pol) and Boolean closure (Bool). We apply these operators to classes of group languages G and to their well-suited extensions G+, which is the least Boolean…
We look at concatenation hierarchies of classes of regular languages. Each such hierarchy is determined by a single class, its basis: level $n$ is built by applying the Boolean polynomial closure operator (BPol), $n$ times to the basis. A…
Concatenation hierarchies are classifications of regular languages. All such hierarchies are built through the same construction process: start from an initial class of languages and build new levels using two generic operations.…
We investigate a famous decision problem in automata theory: separation. Given a class of language C, the separation problem for C takes as input two regular languages and asks whether there exists a third one which belongs to C, includes…
We introduce a flexible class of well-quasi-orderings (WQOs) on words that generalizes the ordering of (not necessarily contiguous) subwords. Each such WQO induces a class of piecewise testable languages (PTLs) as Boolean combinations of…
We investigate the complexity of the separation problem associated to classes of regular languages. For a class C, C-separation takes two regular languages as input and asks whether there exists a third language in C which includes the…
We investigate two problems for a class C of regular word languages. The C-membership problem asks for an algorithm to decide whether an input language belongs to C. The C-separation problem asks for an algorithm that, given as input two…
The dot-depth hierarchy of Brzozowski and Cohen classifies the star-free languages of finite words. By a theorem of McNaughton and Papert, these are also the first-order definable languages. The dot-depth rose to prominence following the…
Group languages are regular languages recognized by finite groups, or equivalently by finite automata in which each letter induces a permutation on the set of states. We investigate the separation problem for this class of languages: given…
We investigate the quantifier alternation hierarchy in first-order logic on finite words. Levels in this hierarchy are defined by counting the number of quantifier alternations in formulas. We prove that one can decide membership of a…
The purpose of this paper is to provide efficient algorithms that decide membership for classes of several Boolean hierarchies for which efficiency (or even decidability) were previously not known. We develop new forbidden-chain…
We investigate quantifier alternation hierarchies in first-order logic on finite words. Levels in these hierarchies are defined by counting the number of quantifier alternations in formulas. We prove that one can decide membership of a…
For every class $\mathscr{C}$ of word languages, one may associate a decision problem called $\mathscr{C}$-separation. Given two regular languages, it asks whether there exists a third language in $\mathscr{C}$ containing the first…
We investigate the decidability of the definability problem for fragments of first order logic over finite words enriched with modular predicates. Our approach aims toward the most generic statements that we could achieve, which…
Second-order polynomials generalize classical first-order ones in allowing for additional variables that range over functions rather than values. We are motivated by their applications in higher-order computational complexity theory,…
Given a regular language $L$, we study the language of words $\mathsf{D}(L)$, that distinguish between pairs of different left-quotients of $L$. We characterize this distinguishability operation, show that its iteration has always a fixed…