Input Tape Research Articles

Automata on ordinals and automaticity of linear orders

We investigate structures recognizable by finite state automata with an input tape of length a limit ordinal. At limits, the set of states which appear unboundedly often before the limit are mapped to a limit state. We describe a method for proving non-automaticity and apply this to determine the optimal bounds for the ranks of linear orders recognized by such automata.

Cooperating systems of four-dimensional finite automata

M. Blum and C. Hewitt first proposed two-dimensional automata as a computational model of two-dimensional pattern processing in 1967, and investigated their pattern recognition abilities. Since then, many researchers in this field have investigated many properties of automata on a two- or three-dimensional tape. However, the question of whether processing four-dimensional digital patterns is much more difficult than processing two- or three-dimensional ones is of great interest from both theoretical and practical standpoints. Thus, the study of four-dimensional automata as a computational model of four-dimensional pattern processing has been meaningful. This article introduces a cooperating system of four-dimensional finite automata as one model of four-dimensional automata. A cooperating system of four-dimensional finite automata consists of a finite number of four-dimensional finite automata and a four-dimensional input tape, where these finite automata work independently (in parallel). The finite automata whose input heads scan the same cell of the input tape can communicate with each other, i.e., every finite automaton is allowed to know the internal states of other finite automata on the cell it is scanning at the moment. In this article we mainly investigate the accepting powers of a cooperating system of seven-way four-dimensional finite automata. The seven-way four-dimensional finite automaton is a four-dimensional finite automaton whose input head can move east, west, south, north, up, down, or in the future, but not in the past, on a four-dimensional input tape.

Unbounded-error quantum computation with small space bounds

We prove the following facts about the language recognition power of quantum Turing machines (QTMs) in the unbounded error setting: QTMs are strictly more powerful than probabilistic Turing machines for any common space bound s satisfying s ( n ) = o ( log log n ) . For “one-way” Turing machines, where the input tape head is not allowed to move left, the above result holds for s ( n ) = o ( log n ) . We also give a characterization for the class of languages recognized with unbounded error by real-time quantum finite automata (QFAs) with restricted measurements. It turns out that these automata are equal in power to their probabilistic counterparts, and this fact does not change when the QFA model is augmented to allow general measurements and mixed states. Unlike the case with classical finite automata, when the QFA tape head is allowed to remain stationary in some steps, more languages become recognizable. We define and use a QTM model that generalizes the other variants introduced earlier in the study of quantum space complexity.

Black-Box Constructions of Protocols for Secure Computation

In this paper, we study the question of whether or not it is possible to construct protocols for general secure computation in the setting of malicious adversaries and no honest majority that use the underlying primitive (e.g., enhanced trapdoor permutation) in a black-box way only. Until now, all known general constructions for this setting were inherently non-black-box since they required the parties to prove zero-knowledge statements that are related to the computation of the underlying primitive. Our main technical result is a fully black-box reduction from oblivious transfer with security against malicious parties to oblivious transfer with security against semihonest parties. As a corollary, we obtain the first constructions of general multiparty protocols (with security against malicious adversaries and without an honest majority) which make only a black-box use of semihonest oblivious transfer, or alternatively a black-box use of lower-level primitives such as enhanced trapdoor permutations or homomorphic encryption. In order to construct this reduction we introduce a new notion of security called privacy in the presence of defensible adversaries. This notion states that if an adversary can produce (retroactively, after the protocol terminates) an input and random tape that make its actions appear to be honest, then it is guaranteed that it learned nothing more than its prescribed output. We then show how to construct defensible oblivious transfer from semihonest oblivious transfer, and malicious oblivious transfer from defensible oblivious transfer, all in a black-box way.

Some properties of four-dimensional parallel Turing machines

Informally, the parallel Turing machine (PTM) proposed by Wiedermann is a set of identical usual sequential Turing machines (STMs) cooperating on two common tapes: a storage tape and an input tape....

Translation from classical two-way automata to pebble two-way automata

We study the relation between the standard two-way automata and more powerful devices, namely, two-way finite automata equipped with some additional “pebbles” that are movable along the input tape, but their use is restricted (nested) in a stack-like fashion. Similarly as in the case of the classical two-way machines, it is not known whether there exists a polynomial trade-off, in the number of states, between the nondeterministic and deterministic two-way automata with nested pebbles. However, we show that these two machine models are not independent: if there exists a polynomial trade-off for the classical two-way automata, then, for each ≥ 0, there must also exist a polynomial trade-off for the two-way automata with nested pebbles. Thus, we have an upward collapse (or a downward separation) from the classical two-way automata to more powerful pebble automata, still staying within the class of regular languages. The same upward collapse holds for complementation of nondeterministic two-way machines. These results are obtained by showing that each pebble machine can be, by using suitable inputs, simulated by a classical two-way automaton (and vice versa), with only a linear number of states, despite the existing exponential blow-up between the classical and pebble two-way machines.

Parallel Turing machines on four-dimensional input tapes

The parallel Turing machine (PTM) proposed by Wiedermann is a set of identical usual sequential Turing machines (STMs) cooperating on two common tapes: storage tape and input tape. On the other han...

On decision problems for parameterized machines

In this paper, we investigate various decision problems concerning parameterized versions of some classes of machines. Let C ( s , m , t ) be the class of nondeterministic multitape Turing machine (TM) acceptors with a two-way read-only input, at most s states, at most m read–write worktapes, and at most t symbols in the worktape alphabet, where s , m , t are fixed positive integers. There is no restriction on the cardinality of the input alphabet. We are able to show the emptiness, disjointness, and universe (also called universality) problems to be decidable for C ( s , m , t ) . For the class consisting of machines in C ( s , m , t ) that always halt or whose minimal-time accepting computations can be bounded by some recursive function f ( n ) (where n is the input length), the containment and equivalence problems are decidable. These results hold for other machines, e.g., when the worktapes are pushdown stacks (where on every step, each pushdown can only pop the top of the stack or replace the top of the stack by at most two symbols) or when stacks are counters (where on every step, a counter can be incremented by 1, decremented by 1, or remain unchanged, and can be tested for zero). Our results are the best possible in the sense that not parameterizing one of s , m , t (or, in the case of counter machines, allowing the counters to increment by arbitrary integers that may change from machines to machines) makes the universe problem undecidable. We also give a simple characterization of the languages defined by C ( s , m , t ) . Finally, we investigate the applicability of our techniques to machines with multiple input heads or multiple input tapes.

Turing Compute Model for Non-negative Binary Numbers

Turing-computable issue is important in research of Turing Machine and has significant value in both theory and practice. The paper analyzes Turing-computable issue of non-negative numbers by relational operations(includes greater than, less than and equal) and arithmetic operations(includes add operation, subtract, multiply, divide and modulo). The regulation of computing 1-bit binary number and the carry set(or borrow set) are defined to compute multi-bit binary numbers. Algorithms are described through multi-tape Turing machine. For some operations, the discussion is extended to base-N number system(3≤N≤10). Turing regulation for add operation is used to implement the Turing counter for counting the length of the string on the input tape of the Turing machine.

Hierarchies based on the number of cooperating systems of three-dimensional finite automata

The question of whether processing three-dimensional digital patterns is much more difficult than two-dimensional ones is of great interest from both theoretical and practical standpoints. Recently, owing to advances in many application areas, such as computer vision, robotics, and so forth, it has become increasingly apparent that the study of three-dimensional pattern processing is of crucial importance. Thus, the study of three-dimensional automata as a computational model of three-dimensional pattern processing has become meaningful. This article introduces a cooperating system of three-dimensional finite automata as one model of three-dimensional automata. A cooperating system of three-dimensional finite automata consists of a finite number of three-dimensional finite automata and a three-dimensional input tape where these finite automata work independently (in parallel). Those finite automata whose input heads scan the same cell of the input tape can communicate with each other, i.e., every finite automaton is allowed to know the internal states of other finite automata on the cell it is scanning at the moment. In this article, we continue the study of cooperating systems of three-dimensional finite automata, and mainly investigate hierarchies based on the number of their cooperating systems.

Real-time reversible iterative arrays

Iterative arrays are one-dimensional arrays of interconnected interacting finite automata. The cell at the origin is equipped with a one-way read-only input tape. We investigate iterative arrays as acceptors for formal languages. In particular, we consider real-time devices which are reversible on the core of computation, i.e., from initial configuration to the configuration given by the time complexity. This property is called real-time reversibility. It is shown that real-time reversible iterative arrays can simulate restricted variants of stacks and queues. It turns out that real-time reversible iterative arrays are strictly weaker than real-time reversible cellular automata. On the other hand, a non-semilinear language is accepted. We show that real-time reversibility itself is not even semidecidable, which extends the undecidability for cellular automata and contrasts with the general case, where reversibility is decidable for one-dimensional devices. Moreover, we prove the non-semidecidability of several other properties. Several closure properties are also derived.

Translation from Classical Two-Way Automata to Pebble Two-Way Automata

We study the relation between the standard two-way automata and more powerful devices, namely, two-way finite automata with an additional "pebble" movable along the input tape. Similarly as in the case of the classical two-way machines, it is not known whether there exists a polynomial trade-off, in the number of states, between the nondeterministic and deterministic pebble two-way automata. However, we show that these two machine models are not independent: if there exists a polynomial trade-off for the classical two-way automata, then there must also exist a polynomial trade-off for the pebble two-way automata. Thus, we have an upward collapse (or a downward separation) from the classical two-way automata to more powerful pebble automata, still staying within the class of regular languages. The same upward collapse holds for complementation of nondeterministic two-way machines. These results are obtained by showing that each pebble machine can be, by using suitable inputs, simulated by a classical two-way automaton with a linear number of states (and vice versa), despite the existing exponential blow-up between the classical and pebble two-way machines.

Program constructor of cellular self-reproducing structures

A simple program for constructing a cellular self-reproducing rectangular loop of arbitrary size is developed based on the parallel substitution algorithm (PSA), which provides a spatial model for representing fine-grained parallel computations. In order to launch the self-reproduction of a loop of some specified size, one should enter its description into the input tape. The program includes operators for preliminary cleaning the cellular array, which makes it possible to easily change its internal functional structure. Two variants of the program are developed. The first variant constructs a chain of self-reproducing loops of the given size, and the second variant constructs an array of such loops.

On Approximate Majority and Probabilistic Time

We prove new results on the circuit complexity of approximate majority, which is the problem of computing the majority of a given bit string whose fraction of 1’s is bounded away from 1/2 (by a constant). We then apply these results to obtain new relationships between probabilistic time, BPTime (t), and alternating time, ∑O(1)Time (t). Our main results are the following: We prove that depth-3 circuits with bottom fan-in (log n)/2 that compute approximate majority on n bits must have size at least $$2^{n^{0.1}}$$. As a corollary we obtain that there is no black-box proof that BPTime (t) $$\subseteq \sum_2$$Time (o(t2)). This complements the (black-box) result that BPTime (t) $$\subseteq \sum_2$$Time (t2 · poly log t) (Sipser and Gacs, STOC ’83; Lautemann, IPL ’83). We prove that approximate majority is computable by uniform polynomial-size circuits of depth 3. Prior to our work, the only known polynomial-size depth-3 circuits for approximate majority were non-uniform (Ajtai, Ann. Pure Appl. Logic ’83). We also prove that BPTime (t) $$\subseteq \sum_3$$Time (t · poly log t). This complements our results in (1). We prove new lower bounds for solving QSAT3 $$\in \sum_3$$Time (n · poly log n) on probabilistic computational models. In particular, we prove that solving QSAT3 requires time n1+Ω(1) on Turing machines with a random-access input tape and a sequential-access work tape that is initialized with random bits. No nontrivial lower bound was previously known on this model (for a function computable in linear space).

COMPUTATIONS AND DECIDABILITY OF ITERATIVE ARRAYS WITH RESTRICTED COMMUNICATION

Iterative arrays (IAs) are linear arrays of interconnected interacting finite state machines, where one distinguished one is equipped with a one-way read-only input tape. We investigate IAs operating in real time whose inter-cell communication is bounded by a constant number of bits not depending on the number of states. Their capabilities are considered in terms of syntactical pattern recognition. It is known [17] that such devices can recognize rather complicated sets of unary patterns with a minimum amount of communication, namely one-bit communication. Some examples are the sets {a2n | n ≥ 1}, {an2 | n ≥ 1}, and {ap | p is prime}. Here, we consider non-unary patterns and it turns out that the non-unary case is quite different. We present several real-time constructions for certain non-unary syntactical patterns. For example, the sets {anbn | n ≥ 1}, {anbncn | n ≥ 1}, {an(bn)m | n, m ≥ 1}, and {anbamb(ba)n·m | n, m ≥ 1} are recognized in real time by IAs. Moreover, it is shown that real-time one-bit IAs can, in some sense, add and multiply integer numbers. Furthermore, decidability questions of communication restricted IAs are dealt with. Due to the constructions provided, undecidability results can be derived. It turns out that emptiness is still not even semidecidable for one-bit IAs despite their restricted communication. Moreover, also the questions of finiteness, infiniteness, inclusion, and equivalence are non-semidecidable.

Some accepting powers of three-dimensional parallel Turing machines

Informally, the parallel Turing machine (PTM) proposed by Wiedermann is a set of identical usual sequential Turing machines (STMs) cooperating on two common tapes: storage tape and input tape. Moreover, STMs which represent the individual processors of a parallel computer can multiply themselves in the course of computation. On the other hand, during the past 25 years or so, automata on a three-dimensional tape have been proposed as computational models of three-dimensional pattern processing, and several properties of such automata have been obtained. We proposed a three-dimensional parallel Turing machine (3-PTM),1 and dealt with a hardware-bounded 3-PTM whose inputs are restricted to cubic ones. We believe that this machine is useful in measuring the parallel computational complexity of three-dimensional images. Here, we continue the study of 3-PTM, whose inputs are restricted to cubic ones, and investigate some of its accepting powers.

Marker versus inkdot over three-dimensional patterns

A multi-marker automaton is a finite automaton which keeps marks as pebbles in the finite control, and cannot rewrite any input symbols but can make marks on its input with the restriction that only a bounded number of these marks can exist at any given time. An improvement of picture recognizability of the finite automaton is the reason why the multi-marker automaton was introduced. On the other hand, a multi-inkdot automaton is a conventional automaton capable of dropping an inkdot on a given input tape for a landmark, but unable to further pick it up. This paper deals with marker versus inkdot over threedimensional input tapes, and investigates some properties.

Three-dimensional parallel Turing machines

Informally, the parallel Turing machine (PTM) proposed by Wiedermann is a set of identical usual sequential Turing machines (STMs) cooperating on two common tapes: storage tape and input tape. Moreover, STMs which represent the individual processors of a parallel computer can multiply themselves in the course of computation. On the other hand, during the past 25 years or so, automata on a three-dimensional tape have been proposed as computational models of three-dimensional pattern processing, and several properties of such automata have been obtained. We proposed a three-dimensional parallel Turing machine (3-PTM), and dealt with a hardware-bounded 3-PTM whose inputs are restricted to cubic ones. We believe that this machine is useful in measuring the parallel computational complexity of three-dimensional images. In this article, we continue the study of 3-PTM, whose inputs are restricted to cubic ones, and investigate some of its accepting powers.

A relationship between Turing machines and finite automata on four-dimensional input tapes

Due to the advances in computer animation, motion image processing, virtual reality systems, and so forth recently, it is useful for analyzing computation of multi-dimensional information processing to explicate the properties of four-dimensional automata. From this point of view, we first proposed four-dimensional automata in 2002, and investigated their several accepting powers. In this paper, we coutinue the study, and mainly concentrate on investigating the relationship between the accepting powers of four-dimensional finite automata and seven-way four-dimensional tape-bounded Turing Machines.

Path-bounded three-dimensional finite automata

The comparative study of the computational powers of deterministic and nondeterministic computations is one of the central tasks in complexity theory. This paper investigates the computational power of nondeterministic computing devices with restricted nondeterminism. There are only few results measuring the computational power of restricted nondeterminism. In general, there are three possibilities to measure the amount of nondeterminism in computation. In this paper, we consider the possibility to count the number of different nondeterministic computation paths on any input. In particular, we deal with five-way three-dimensional finite automata with multiple input heads operating on three-dimensional input tapes.