Checking in polynomial time whether or not a regular tree language is deterministic top-down

Abstract

It is well known that for a given bottom-up tree automaton it can be decided whether or not an equivalent deterministic top-down tree automaton exists. Recently it was claimed that such a decision can be carried out in polynomial time (Leupold and Maneth, FCT'2021); but their procedure and corresponding property is wrong. Here we address this mistake and present a correct property which allows to determine in polynomial time whether or not a given tree language can be recognized by a deterministic top-down tree automaton. Furthermore, our new property is stated for arbitrary deterministic bottom-up tree automata, and not only for minimal such automata (as before).