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The Equivalence Problem of E-Pattern Languages with Regular Constraints is Undecidable

Dirk Nowotka, Max Wiedenhöft

TL;DR

This work considers the membership, inclusion, and equivalence problems for erasing and non-erasing pattern languages with regular constraints and shows that the erasing equivalence problem becomes undecidable if regular constraints are allowed in addition to variable equality.

Abstract

Patterns are words with terminals and variables. The language of a pattern is the set of words obtained by uniformly substituting all variables with words that contain only terminals. Regular constraints restrict valid substitutions of variables by associating with each variable a regular language representable by, e.g., finite automata. Pattern languages with regular constraints contain only words in which each variable is substituted according to a set of regular constraints. We consider the membership, inclusion, and equivalence problems for erasing and non-erasing pattern languages with regular constraints. Our main result shows that the erasing equivalence problem, one of the most prominent open problems in the realm of patterns, becomes undecidable if regular constraints are allowed in addition to variable equality.

The Equivalence Problem of E-Pattern Languages with Regular Constraints is Undecidable

TL;DR

This work considers the membership, inclusion, and equivalence problems for erasing and non-erasing pattern languages with regular constraints and shows that the erasing equivalence problem becomes undecidable if regular constraints are allowed in addition to variable equality.

Abstract

Patterns are words with terminals and variables. The language of a pattern is the set of words obtained by uniformly substituting all variables with words that contain only terminals. Regular constraints restrict valid substitutions of variables by associating with each variable a regular language representable by, e.g., finite automata. Pattern languages with regular constraints contain only words in which each variable is substituted according to a set of regular constraints. We consider the membership, inclusion, and equivalence problems for erasing and non-erasing pattern languages with regular constraints. Our main result shows that the erasing equivalence problem, one of the most prominent open problems in the realm of patterns, becomes undecidable if regular constraints are allowed in addition to variable equality.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 6 sections, 9 theorems, 15 equations, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Preliminaries
  3. Nondeterministic 2-Counter Automata
  4. Known Results
  5. Undecidability of E-Pattern Language Equivalence
  6. Further Discussion

Key Result

corollary 1

Let $(\alpha,r_\alpha) \in Pat_{\Sigma,\mathcal{C}_{Reg}}$ and $w\in\Sigma^*$. The decision problem of whether $w \in L_X(\alpha,r_\alpha)$ for $X \in \{E,NE\}$ is NP-complete.

Theorems & Definitions (13)

  • corollary 1
  • theorem 1
  • corollary 2
  • theorem 2
  • lemma 1
  • proof
  • lemma 2
  • proof
  • lemma 3
  • proof
  • ...and 3 more