Higher-order Pushdown Research Articles

On the Expressive Power of Higher-Order Pushdown Systems

We show that deterministic collapsible pushdown automata of second order can recognize a language that is not recognizable by any deterministic higher-order pushdown automaton (without collapse) of any order. This implies that there exists a tree generated by a second order collapsible pushdown system (equivalently, by a recursion scheme of second order) that is not generated by any deterministic higher-order pushdown system (without collapse) of any order (equivalently, by any safe recursion scheme of any order). As a side effect, we present a pumping lemma for deterministic higher-order pushdown automata, which potentially can be useful for other applications.

Rewriting Higher-Order Stack Trees

Higher-order pushdown systems and ground tree rewriting systems can be seen as extensions of suffix word rewriting systems. Both classes generate infinite graphs with interesting logical properties. Indeed, the model-checking problem for monadic second order logic (respectively first order logic with a reachability predicate) is decidable on such graphs. We unify both models by introducing the notion of stack trees, trees whose nodes are labelled by higher-order stacks, and define the corresponding class of higher-order ground tree rewriting systems. We show that these graphs retain the decidability properties of ground tree rewriting graphs while generalising the pushdown hierarchy of graphs.

Unboundedness and downward closures of higher-order pushdown automata

We show the diagonal problem for higher-order pushdown automata (HOPDA), and hence the simultaneous unboundedness problem, is decidable. From recent work by Zetzsche this means that we can construct the downward closure of the set of words accepted by a given HOPDA. This also means we can construct the downward closure of the Parikh image of a HOPDA. Both of these consequences play an important role in verifying concurrent higher-order programs expressed as HOPDA or safe higher-order recursion schemes.

Krivine machines and higher-order schemes

We propose a new approach to analyzing higher-order recursive schemes. Many results in the literature use automata models generalizing pushdown automata, most notably higher-order pushdown automata with collapse (CPDA). Instead, we propose to use the Krivine machine model. Compared to CPDA, this model is closer to lambda-calculus, and incorporates nicely many invariants of computations, as for example the typing information. The usefulness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with new proofs of two central results in the field: the decidability of the local and global model checking problems for higher-order schemes with respect to the mu-calculus.

On First-Order Logic and CPDA Graphs

Higher-order pushdown automata (n-PDA) are abstract machines equipped with a nested `stack of stacks of stacks'. Collapsible pushdown automata (n-CPDA) extend these devices by adding `links' to the stack and are equi-expressive for tree generation with simply typed ?Y terms. Whilst the configuration graphs of HOPDA are well understood, relatively little is known about the CPDA graphs. The order-2 CPDA graphs already have undecidable MSO theories but it was only recently shown by Kartzow (Log. Methods Comput. Sci. 9(1), 2013) that first-order logic is decidable at the second level. In this paper we show the surprising result that first-order logic ceases to be decidable at order-3 and above. We delimit the fragments of the decision problem to which our undecidability result applies in terms of quantifer alternation and the orders of CPDA links used. Additionally we exhibit a natural sub-hierarchy enjoying limited decidability.

First-Order Logic on Higher-Order Nested Pushdown Trees

We introduce a new hierarchy of higher-order nested pushdown trees generalising Alur et al.’s concept of nested pushdown trees. Nested pushdown trees are useful representations of control flows in the verification of programs with recursive calls of first-order functions. Higher-order nested pushdown trees are expansions of unfoldings of graphs generated by higher-order pushdown systems. Moreover, the class of nested pushdown trees of level n is uniformly first-order interpretable in the class of collapsible pushdown graphs of level n + 1. The relationship between the class of higher-order pushdown graphs and the class of collapsible higher-order pushdown graphs is not very well understood. We hope that the further study of the nested pushdown tree hierarchy leads to a better understanding of these two hierarchies. In this article, we are concerned with the first-order model checking problem on higher-order nested pushdown trees. We show that the first-order model checking on the first two levels of this hierarchy is decidable. Moreover, we obtain an alternating 2-EXPTIME algorithm for the class of nested pushdown trees of level 1. The proof technique involves a pseudo-local analysis of strategies in the Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé games on two identical copies of a nested pushdown tree. Ordinary locality arguments in the spirit of Gaifman’s lemma do not apply here because nested pushdown trees tend to have small diameters. We introduce the notion of relevant ancestors which provide a sufficient description of the FO k -type of each element in a higher-order nested pushdown tree. The local analysis of these ancestors allows us to prove the existence of restricted winning strategies in the Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé game. These strategies are then used to create a first-order model checking algorithm.

Higher-Order Pushdown Systems with Data

We propose a new extension of higher-order pushdown automata, which allows to use an infinite alphabet. The new automata recognize languages of data words (instead of normal words), which beside each its letter from a finite alphabet have a data value from an infinite alphabet. Those data values can be loaded to the stack of the automaton, and later compared with some farther data values on the input. Our main purpose for introducing these automata is that they may help in analyzing normal automata (without data). As an example, we give a proof that deterministic automata with collapse can recognize more languages than deterministic automata without collapse. This proof is simpler than in the no-data case. We also state a hypothesis how the new automaton model can be related to the original model of higher-order pushdown automata.

Symbolic Backwards-Reachability Analysis for Higher-Order Pushdown Systems

Higher-order pushdown systems (PDSs) generalise pushdown systems through the use of higher-order stacks, that is, a nested "stack of stacks" structure. These systems may be used to model higher-order programs and are closely related to the Caucal hierarchy of infinite graphs and safe higher-order recursion schemes. We consider the backwards-reachability problem over higher-order Alternating PDSs (APDSs), a generalisation of higher-order PDSs. This builds on and extends previous work on pushdown systems and context-free higher-order processes in a non-trivial manner. In particular, we show that the set of configurations from which a regular set of higher-order APDS configurations is reachable is regular and computable in n-EXPTIME. In fact, the problem is n-EXPTIME-complete. We show that this work has several applications in the verification of higher-order PDSs, such as linear-time model-checking, alternation-free mu-calculus model-checking and the computation of winning regions of reachability games.

On the structure of graphs in the Caucal hierarchy

We investigate the structure of graphs in the Caucal hierarchy. We provide criteria concerning the degree of vertices or the length of paths which can be used to show that a given graph does not belong to a certain level of this hierarchy. Each graph in the Caucal hierarchy corresponds to the configuration graph of some higher-order pushdown automaton. The main part of the paper consists of a study of such configuration graphs. We provide tools to decompose and reassemble their runs, and we prove a pumping lemma for higher-order pushdown automata.