Related papers: Characterization and Decidability of FC-Definable …
We propose FC, a new logic on words that combines finite model theory with the theory of concatenation - a first-order logic that is based on word equations. Like the theory of concatenation, FC is built around word equations; in contrast…
Rational word languages can be defined by several equivalent means: finite state automata, rational expressions, finite congruences, or monadic second-order (MSO) logic. The robust subclass of aperiodic languages is defined by: counter-free…
We study the question of whether a given regular language of finite trees can be defined in first-order logic. We develop an algebraic approach to address this question and we use it to derive several necessary and sufficient conditions for…
We investigate the expressive power of regular expressions for languages of countable words and establish their expressive equivalence with logical and algebraic characterizations. Our goal is to extend the classical theory of regular…
We give a simple new proof that regular languages defined by first-order sentences with no quantifier alteration can be defined by such sentences in which only regular atomic formulas appear. Earlier proofs of this fact relied on arguments…
We study regular expressions that use variables, or parameters, which are interpreted as alphabet letters. We consider two classes of languages denoted by such expressions: under the possibility semantics, a word belongs to the language if…
We introduce an operator on classes of regular languages, the star-free closure. Our motivation is to generalize standard results of automata theory within a unified framework. Given an arbitrary input class $C$, the star-free closure…
We define a class of languages of infinite words over infinite alphabets, and the corresponding automata. The automata used for recognition are a generalisation of deterministic Muller automata to the setting of nominal sets. Remarkably,…
A classic result in formal language theory is the equivalence among non-counting, or aperiodic, regular languages, and languages defined through star-free regular expressions, or first-order logic. Past attempts to extend this result beyond…
We study the complexity of basic regular operations on languages represented by incomplete deterministic or nondeterministic automata, in which all states are final. Such languages are known to be prefix-closed. We get tight bounds on both…
The regular languages with a neutral letter expressible in first-order logic with one alternation are characterized. Specifically, it is shown that if an arbitrary $\Sigma_2$ formula defines a regular language with a neutral letter, then…
The class of Unambiguous Star-Free Regular Languages (UL) was defined by Schutzenberger as the class of languages defined by Unambiguous Polynomials. UL has been variously characterized (over finite words) by logics such as TL[X_a,Y_a],…
This thesis offers two logic-based approaches to conjunctive queries in the context of information extraction. The first and main approach is the introduction of conjunctive query fragments of the logics FC and FC[REG], denoted as FC-CQ and…
$\omega$-clones are multi-sorted structures that naturally emerge as algebras for infinite trees, just as $\omega$-semigroups are convenient algebras for infinite words. In the algebraic theory of languages, one hopes that a language is…
A regular language L is said to be cellular if there exists a 1-dimensional cellular automaton CA such that L is the language consisting of the finite blocks associated with CA. It is shown that cellularity of a regular language is…
Sets with atoms serve as an alternative to ZFC foundations for mathematics, where some infinite, though highly symmetric sets, behave in a finitistic way. Therefore, one can try to carry over analysis of the classical algorithms from finite…
Call a semantics for a language with variables absolute when variables map to fixed entities in the denotation. That is, a semantics is absolute when the denotation of a variable a is a copy of itself in the denotation. We give a trio of…
We prove that, similarly to known PSpace-completeness of recognising FO(<)-definability of the language L(A) of a DFA A, deciding both FO(<,C)- and FO(<,MOD)-definability are PSpace-complete. (Here, FO(<,C) extends the first-order logic…
Regular synchronization languages can be used to define rational relations of finite words, and to characterize subclasses of rational relations, like automatic or recognizable relations. We provide a systematic study of the decidability of…
For a class L of languages let PDL[L] be an extension of Propositional Dynamic Logic which allows programs to be in a language of L rather than just to be regular. If L contains a non-regular language, PDL[L] can express non-regular…