Related papers: Regular languages defined by first-order formulas …
We prove lower bounds on the length of regular expressions for finite languages by methods from arithmetic circuit complexity. First, we show a reduction: the length of a regular expression for a language $L\subseteq \{0,1\}^n$ is bounded…
We consider the quantifier alternation hierarchy within two-variable first-order logic FO^2[<,suc] over finite words with linear order and binary successor predicate. We give a single identity of omega-terms for each level of this…
While finite automata have minimal DFAs as a simple and natural normal form, deterministic omega-automata do not currently have anything similar. One reason for this is that a normal form for omega-regular languages has to speak about more…
Building on our previous work on enriched universal algebra, we define a notion of enriched language consisting of function and relation symbols whose arities are objects of the base of enrichment. In this context, we construct atomic…
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 report some further developments regarding the language theory of higher-dimensional automata (HDAs). Regular languages of HDAs are sets of finite interval partially ordered multisets (pomsets) with interfaces. We show a pumping lemma…
Program semantics can often be expressed as a (many-sorted) first-order theory S, and program properties as sentences $\varphi$ which are intended to hold in the canonical model of such a theory, which is often incomputable. Recently, we…
Since the 1970s with the work of McNaughton, Papert and Sch\"utzenberger, a regular language is known to be definable in the first-order logic if and only if its syntactic monoid is aperiodic. This algebraic characterisation of a…
Several practical tools for automatically verifying functional programs (e.g., Liquid Haskell and Leon for Scala programs) rely on a heuristic based on unrolling recursive function definitions followed by quantifier-free reasoning using SMT…
We introduce a class of algebras that can be used as recognisers for regular tree languages. We show that it is the only such class that forms a pseudo-variety and we prove the existence of syntactic algebras. Finally, we give a more…
Regular expressions in an Automata Theory and Formal Languages course are mostly treated as a theoretical topic. That is, to some degree their mathematical properties and their role to describe languages is discussed. This approach fails to…
Regular expressions are commonly understood in terms of their denotational semantics, that is, through formal languages -- the regular languages. This view is inductive in nature: two primitives are equivalent if they are constructed in the…
We study the properties of the language of Stratified Sets (first-order logic with $\in$ and a stratification condition) as used in TST, TZT, and (with stratifiability instead of stratification) in Quine's NF. We find that the syntax forms…
We prove that a random group, in Gromov's density model with $d<1/16$, satisfies a universal sentence $\sigma$ (in the language of groups) if and only if $\sigma$ is true in a nonabelian free group.
We describe an exact sampler for a simply-typed, first-order functional programming language. Given an acyclic finite automaton, $\alpha_{\varnothing}$, it samples a random function uniformly without replacement from well-typed functions in…
We study the task, for a given language $L$, of enumerating the (generally infinite) sequence of its words, without repetitions, while bounding the delay between two consecutive words. To allow for delay bounds that do not depend on the…
Contemporary semantic description of logic is based on the ontology of all possible interpretations, an insufficiently clear metaphysical concept. In this article, logic is described as the internal organization of language. Logical…
A notion of alternating timed automata is proposed. It is shown that such automata with only one clock have decidable emptiness problem over finite words. This gives a new class of timed languages which is closed under boolean operations…
Regular languages -- the languages accepted by deterministic finite automata -- are known to be precisely the languages recognized by finite monoids. This characterization is the origin of algebraic language theory. In this paper, we…
We prove several decidability and undecidability results for the satisfiability and validity problems for languages that can express solutions to word equations with length constraints. The atomic formulas over this language are equality…