TY - JOUR
T1 - Deciding path size of nondeterministic (and input-driven) pushdown automata
AU - Han, Yo Sub
AU - Ko, Sang Ki
AU - Salomaa, Kai
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/1/4
Y1 - 2023/1/4
N2 - The degree of ambiguity (respectively, the path size) of a nondeterministic automaton, on a given input, measures the number of accepting computations (respectively, the number of all computations). It is known that deciding the finiteness of the degree of ambiguity of a nondeterministic pushdown automaton is undecidable. Also, it is undecidable for a given k≥3 to decide whether the path size of a nondeterministic pushdown automaton is bounded by k. As the main result, we show that deciding the finiteness of the path size of a nondeterministic pushdown automaton can be done in polynomial time. Also, we show that the k-path problem for nondeterministic input-driven pushdown automata (respectively, for nondeterministic finite automata) is complete for exponential time (respectively, complete for polynomial space).
AB - The degree of ambiguity (respectively, the path size) of a nondeterministic automaton, on a given input, measures the number of accepting computations (respectively, the number of all computations). It is known that deciding the finiteness of the degree of ambiguity of a nondeterministic pushdown automaton is undecidable. Also, it is undecidable for a given k≥3 to decide whether the path size of a nondeterministic pushdown automaton is bounded by k. As the main result, we show that deciding the finiteness of the path size of a nondeterministic pushdown automaton can be done in polynomial time. Also, we show that the k-path problem for nondeterministic input-driven pushdown automata (respectively, for nondeterministic finite automata) is complete for exponential time (respectively, complete for polynomial space).
KW - Ambiguity
KW - Decidability
KW - Input-driven pushdown automaton
KW - Measures of nondeterminism
KW - Path size
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141506268&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tcs.2022.10.023
DO - 10.1016/j.tcs.2022.10.023
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141506268
SN - 0304-3975
VL - 939
SP - 170
EP - 181
JO - Theoretical Computer Science
JF - Theoretical Computer Science
ER -