Vector addition system reachability problem

Abstract

The reachability problem for Vector Addition Systems (VASs) is a central problem of net theory. The general problem is known decidable by algorithms exclusively based on the classical Kosaraju-Lambert-Mayr-Sacerdote-Tenney decomposition (KLMTS decomposition). Recently from this decomposition, we deduced that a final configuration is not reachable from an initial one if and only if there exists a Presburger inductive invariant that contains the initial configuration but not the final one. Since we can decide if a Preburger formula denotes an inductive invariant, we deduce from this result that there exist checkable certificates of non-reachability in the Presburger arithmetic. In particular, there exists a simple algorithm for deciding the general VAS reachability problem based on two semi-algorithms. A first one that tries to prove the reachability by enumerating finite sequences of actions and a second one that tries to prove the non-reachability by enumerating Presburger formulas. In this paper we provide the first proof of the VAS reachability problem that is not based on the KLMST decomposition. The proof is based on the notion of production relations inspired from Hauschildt that directly provides the existence of Presburger inductive invariants.