One-Counter Verifiers for Decidable Languages

Abstract

AbstractCondon and Lipton (FOCS 1989) showed that the class of languages having a space-bounded interactive proof system (IPS) is a proper subset of decidable languages, where the verifier is a probabilistic Turing machine. In this paper, we show that if we use architecturally restricted verifiers instead of restricting the working memory, i.e. replacing the working tape(s) with a single counter, we can define some IPS’s for each decidable language. Such verifiers are called two-way probabilistic one-counter automata (2pca’s). Then, we show that by adding a fixed-size quantum memory to a 2pca, called a two-way one-counter automaton with quantum and classical states (2qcca), the protocol can be space efficient. As a further result, if the 2qcca uses a quantum counter, then the protocol can even be public, also known as Arthur-Merlin games.We also investigate the computational power of 2pca’s and 2qcca’s as language recognizers. We show that bounded-error 2pca’s can be more powerful than their deterministic counterparts by giving a bounded-error simulation of their nondeterministic counterparts. Then, we present a new programming technique for bounded-error 2qcca’s and show that they can recognize a language which seems not to be recognized by any bounded-error 2pca. We also obtain some interesting results for bounded-error 1-pebble quantum finite automata based on this new technique. Lastly, we prove a conjecture posed by Ravikumar (FSTTCS 1992) regarding 1-pebble probabilistic finite automata, i.e. they can recognize some nonstochastic languages with bounded error.KeywordsQuantum MemoryQuantum RegisterInput TapeCounter MachineClassical CounterThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.