Related papers: Deciding DFA-Primality is NP-Hard
Optimization is a key task in a number of applications. When the set of feasible solutions under consideration is of combinatorial nature and described in an implicit way as a set of constraints, optimization is typically NP-hard.…
In this paper, we show that the derivability problem for the primal propositional logic remains solvable in polynomial time upon adding a certain form of the principle of equivalent form substitution; and that, upon adding another form of…
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 show that if M is a DFA with n states over an arbitrary alphabet and L = L(M), then the worst-case state complexity of L^2 is n*2^n - 2^{n-1}. If, however, M is a DFA over a unary alphabet, then the worst-case state complexity of L^k is…
A classical problem in grammatical inference is to identify a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) from a set of positive and negative examples. In this paper, we address the related - yet seemingly novel - problem of identifying a set of…
Given an order, a commutative ring whose additive group is free of finite rank, a natural computational question is whether a fixed univariate polynomial $f \in \mathbb{Z}[X]$ has a root in this ring. In this paper, we show that the…
For $p$ prime, $A \subseteq \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ and $\lambda \in \mathbb{Z}$, the sum of dilates $A + \lambda \cdot A$ is defined by \[A + \lambda \cdot A = \{a + \lambda a' : a, a' \in A\}.\] The basic problem on such sums of dilates…
The unification problem in a propositional logic is to determine, given a formula F, whether there exists a substitution s such that s(F) is in that logic. In that case, s is a unifier of F. When a unifiable formula has minimal complete…
Factor Analysis (FA) is a technique of fundamental importance that is widely used in classical and modern multivariate statistics, psychometrics and econometrics. In this paper, we revisit the classical rank-constrained FA problem, which…
An automaton is partially ordered if the only cycles in its transition diagram are self-loops. The expressivity of partially ordered NFAs (poNFAs) can be characterized by the Straubing-Th\'erien hierarchy. Level 3/2 is recognized by poNFAs,…
Monadic decomposibility --- the ability to determine whether a formula in a given logical theory can be decomposed into a boolean combination of monadic formulas --- is a powerful tool for devising a decision procedure for a given logical…
State minimization of combinatorial filters is a fundamental problem that arises, for example, in building cheap, resource-efficient robots. But exact minimization is known to be NP-hard. This paper conducts a more nuanced analysis of this…
One of the greatest difficulties encountered by all in their first proof intensive class is subtly assuming an unproven fact in a proof. The purpose of this note is to describe a specific instance where this can occur, namely in results…
We study several variants of decomposing a symmetric matrix into a sum of a low-rank positive semidefinite matrix and a diagonal matrix. Such decompositions have applications in factor analysis and they have been studied for many decades.…
DPLL and resolution are two popular methods for solving the problem of propositional satisfiability. Rather than algorithms, they are families of algorithms, as their behavior depend on some choices they face during execution: DPLL depends…
For formulas F of propositional calculus I introduce a "metavariable" MF and show how it can be used to define an algorithm for testing satisfiability. MF is a formula which is true/false under all possible truth assignments iff F is…
A regular language $L$ is said to be prime, if it is not the product of two non-trivial languages. Martens et al. settled the exact complexity of deciding primality for deterministic finite automata in 2010. For finite languages, Mateescu…
A minimal deterministic finite automaton (DFA) is uniformly minimal if it always remains minimal when the final state set is replaced by a non-empty proper subset of the state set. We prove that a permutation DFA is uniformly minimal if and…
The problem DFA-Intersection-Nonemptiness asks if a given number of deterministic automata accept a common word. In general, this problem is PSPACE-complete. Here, we investigate this problem for the subclasses of commutative automata and…
In this paper we address the decision problem for a fragment of set theory with restricted quantification which extends the language studied in [4] with pair related quantifiers and constructs, in view of possible applications in the field…