English

Automata on $S$-adic words

Formal Languages and Automata Theory 2025-06-24 v1 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

A fundamental question in logic and verification is the following: for which unary predicates P1,,PkP_1, \ldots, P_k is the monadic second-order theory of N;<,P1,,Pk\langle \mathbb{N}; <, P_1, \ldots, P_k \rangle decidable? Equivalently, for which infinite words α\alpha can we decide whether a given B\"uchi automaton AA accepts α\alpha? Carton and Thomas showed decidability in case α\alpha is a fixed point of a letter-to-word substitution σ\sigma, i.e., σ(α)=α\sigma(\alpha) = \alpha. However, abundantly more words, e.g., Sturmian words, are characterised by a broader notion of self-similarity that uses a set SS of substitutions. A word α\alpha is said to be directed by a sequence s=(σn)nNs = (\sigma_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}} over SS if there is a sequence of words (αn)nN(\alpha_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}} such that α0=α\alpha_0 = \alpha and αn=σn(αn+1)\alpha_n = \sigma_n(\alpha_{n+1}) for all nn; such α\alpha is called SS-adic. We study the automaton acceptance problem for such words and prove, among others, the following. Given finite SS and an automaton AA, we can compute an automaton BB that accepts sSωs \in S^\omega if and only if ss directs a word α\alpha accepted by AA. Thus we can algorithmically answer questions of the form "Which SS-adic words are accepted by a given automaton AA?"

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.17460,
  title  = {Automata on $S$-adic words},
  author = {Valérie Berthé and Toghrul Karimov and Mihir Vahanwala},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.17460},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:27:26.938Z