On the Number of Active States in Deterministic and Nondeterministic Finite Automata

2017 ◽  
pp. 40-51
Author(s):  
Henning Bordihn ◽  
Markus Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Finite Automata ◽  
Nondeterministic Finite Automata

MAGIC NUMBERS FOR SYMMETRIC DIFFERENCE NFAS

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (05) ◽  
pp. 1027-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
LYNETTE VAN ZIJL
Keyword(s):  
Finite Automaton ◽  
Finite Automata ◽  
Symmetric Difference ◽  
Magic Numbers ◽  
Deterministic Finite Automaton ◽  
Nondeterministic Finite Automata ◽  
Binary Case ◽  
Nondeterministic Finite Automaton

Iwama et al. showed that there exists an n-state binary nondeterministic finite automaton such that its equivalent minimal deterministic finite automaton has exactly 2n - α states, for all n ≥ 7 and 5 ≤ α ≤ 2n-2, subject to certain coprimality conditions. We investigate the same question for both unary and binary symmetric difference nondeterministic finite automata. In the binary case, we show that for any n ≥ 4, there is an n-state symmetric difference nondeterministic finite automaton for which the equivalent minimal deterministic finite automaton has 2n - 1 + 2k - 1 - 1 states, for 2 < k ≤ n - 1. In the unary case, we consider a large practical subclass of unary symmetric difference nondeterministic finite automata: for all n ≥ 2, we argue that there are many values of α such that there is no n-state unary symmetric difference nondeterministic finite automaton with an equivalent minimal deterministic finite automaton with 2n - α states, where 0 < α < 2n - 1. For each n ≥ 2, we quantify such values of α precisely.

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