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Monads are of interest both in semantics and in higher dimensional algebra. It turns out that the idea behind usual notion finitary monads (whose values on all sets can be computed from their values on finite sets) extends to a more general…
We consider a set of natural operations on languages, and prove that the orbit of any language L under the monoid generated by this set is finite and bounded, independently of L. This generalizes previous results about complement, Kleene…
Algorithmic decidability is established for two order-theoretic properties of downward closed subsets defined by finitely many obstructions in two infinite posets. The properties under consideration are: (a) being atomic, i.e. not being…
An order-theoretic forest is a countable partial order such that the set of elements larger than any element is linearly ordered. It is an order-theoretic tree if any two elements have an upper-bound. The order type of a branch can be any…
Combining ideas from distributed algorithms and alternating automata, we introduce a new class of finite graph automata that recognize precisely the languages of finite graphs definable in monadic second-order logic. By restricting…
For every fixed class of regular languages, there is a natural hierarchy of increasingly more general problems: Firstly, the membership problem asks whether a given language belongs to the fixed class of languages. Secondly, the separation…
This thesis explores how concepts of formal language theory can be used to study left-orderable groups. It analyses the languages formed by their positive cones and demonstrates how the abstract families of languages (AFLs) in the Chomsky…
We discuss a topological approach to words introduced by the author. Words on an arbitrary alphabet are approximated by Gauss words and then studied up to natural modifications inspired by the Reidemeister moves on knot diagrams. This leads…
Combining ideas coming from Stone duality and Reynolds parametricity, we formulate in a clean and principled way a notion of profinite lambda-term which, we show, generalizes at every type the traditional notion of profinite word coming…
A systematic theory of structural limits for finite models has been developed by Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez. It is based on the insight that the collection of finite structures can be embedded, via a map they call the Stone pairing, in a…
Compounding submodular monotone (i.e. 2-alternating) set functions on a finite set preserves this property, as shown in 2010. A natural generalization to k-alternating functions was presented in 2018, however hardly readable because of page…
We study pseudorandomness and pseudorandom generators from the perspective of logical definability. Building on results from ordinary derandomization and finite model theory, we show that it is possible to deterministically construct, in…
We use monadic second-order logic to define two-dimensional subshifts, or sets of colorings of the infinite plane. We present a natural family of quantifier alternation hierarchies, and show that they all collapse to the third level. In…
We combine the language of monoids with the language of preorders so as to refine some fundamental aspects of the classical theory of factorization and prove an abstract factorization theorem with a variety of applications. In particular,…
Accounts of semantic phenomena often involve extending types of meanings and revising composition rules at the same time. The concept of monads allows many such accounts -- for intensionality, variable binding, quantification and focus --…
Surface groups are determined among limit groups by their profinite completions. As a corollary, the set of surface words in a free group is closed in the profinite topology.
Howie and Duncan observed that a word in a free product with length at least two and which is not a proper power can be decomposed as a product of two cyclic subwords each of which is uniquely positioned. Using this property, they proved…
In algebraic terms, the insertion of $n$-powers in words may be modelled at the language level by considering the pseudovariety of ordered monoids defined by the inequality $1\le x^n$. We compare this pseudovariety with several other…
The monadic theory of $(\mathbb R,\le)$ with quantification restricted to Borel sets is decidable. The Boolean combinations of $F_\sigma$ sets form an elementary substructure of the Borel sets. Under determinacy hypotheses, the proof…
We present an exposition of the theory of finite automata augmented with a multiply-only register storing an element of a given monoid or group. Included are a number of new results of a foundational nature. We illustrate our techniques…