Recognizable Two-dimensional Languages Research Articles

A stronger recognizability condition for two-dimensional languages

Automata, Logic and Semantics The paper presents a condition necessarily satisfied by (tiling system) recognizable two-dimensional languages. The new recognizability condition is compared with all the other ones known in the literature (namely three conditions), once they are put in a uniform setting: they are stated as bounds on the growth of some complexity functions defined for two-dimensional languages. The gaps between such functions are analyzed and examples are shown that asymptotically separate them. Finally the new recognizability condition results to be the strongest one, while the remaining ones are its particular cases. The problem of deciding whether a two-dimensional language is recognizable is here related to the one of estimating the minimal size of finite automata recognizing a sequence of (one-dimensional) string languages.

EXPLORING INSIDE TILING RECOGNIZABLE PICTURE LANGUAGES TO FIND DETERMINISTIC SUBCLASSES

Tiling recognizable two-dimensional languages, also known as REC, generalize recognizable string languages to two dimensions and share with them several theoretical properties. Nevertheless family REC is not closed under complementation and this implies that it is intrinsically non-deterministic. We consider different notions of unambiguity and determinism and the corresponding REC subclasses: they define a hierarchy inside REC. We show that some definitions of unambiguity are equivalent to particular notions of determinism and therefore the corresponding classes have linear parsing algorithms and are closed under complementation.

Deterministic and Unambiguous Families within Recognizable Two-dimensional Languages

Recognizable two-dimensional languages (REC) are defined by tiling systems that generalize to two dimensions non-deterministic finite automata for strings. We introduce the notion of deterministic tiling system and the corresponding family of languages (DREC) and study its structural and closure properties. Furthermore we show that, in contrast with the one-dimensional case, there exist other classes between deterministic and non-deterministic families that we separate by means of examples and decidability properties.

A computational model for tiling recognizable two-dimensional languages

Tiling systems are a well accepted model to define recognizable two-dimensional languages but they are not an effective device for recognition unless a scanning strategy for the pictures is fixed. We define a tiling automaton as a tiling system equipped with a scanning strategy and a suitable data structure. The class of languages accepted by tiling automata coincides with the REC family. In this framework it is possible to define determinism, non-determinism and unambiguity. Then (deterministic) tiling automata are compared with the other known (deterministic) automata models for two-dimensional languages.

Deterministic and unambiguous two-dimensional languages over one-letter alphabet

The paper focuses on deterministic and unambiguous recognizable two-dimensional languages with particular attention to the case of a one-letter alphabet. The family DREC(1) of deterministic languages over a one-letter alphabet is characterized as both L (DOTA)(1), the class of languages accepted by deterministic on-line tessellation acceptors, and L (2AFA)(1), the class of languages recognized by 2-way alternating finite automata. We show that there are inherently ambiguous languages and unambiguously recognizable languages that cannot be deterministically recognized even in the case of a one-letter alphabet. In particular we show that on-line tessellation acceptors are more powerful than their deterministic counterpart, even in the case of a one-letter alphabet. Finally we show that DREC(1) is complex enough not to be characterized in terms of classical operations.

Unambiguous recognizable two-dimensional languages

We consider the family UREC of unambiguous recognizable two-dimensional languages. We prove that there are recognizable languages that are inherently ambiguous, that is UREC family is a proper subclass of REC family. The result is obtained by showing a necessary condition for unambiguous recognizable languages. Further UREC family coincides with the class of picture languages defined by unambiguous 2OTA and it strictly contains its deterministic counterpart. Some closure and non-closure properties of UREC are presented. Finally we show that it is undecidable whether a given tiling system is unambiguous.