Issue |
RAIRO-Theor. Inf. Appl.
Volume 43, Number 1, January-March 2009
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 69 - 94 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/ita:2007061 | |
Published online | 20 December 2007 |
Hyper-minimizing minimized deterministic finite state automata
1
3210 Acklen Ave., Nashville, TN 37212, USA; badr@uiuc.edu
2
Department of Computer
Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Jesenná 5, 04001 Košice, Slovakia; viliam.geffert@upjs.sk
3
Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago, 5734 S. University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, USA; ics@math.uchicago.edu
Received:
12
July
2007
Accepted:
21
November
2007
We present the first (polynomial-time) algorithm for reducing a given deterministic finite state automaton (DFA) into a hyper-minimized DFA, which may have fewer states than the classically minimized DFA. The price we pay is that the language recognized by the new machine can differ from the original on a finite number of inputs. These hyper-minimized automata are optimal, in the sense that every DFA with fewer states must disagree on infinitely many inputs. With small modifications, the construction works also for finite state transducers producing outputs. Within a class of finitely differing languages, the hyper-minimized automaton is not necessarily unique. There may exist several non-isomorphic machines using the minimum number of states, each accepting a separate language finitely-different from the original one. We will show that there are large structural similarities among all these smallest automata.
Mathematics Subject Classification: 68Q70
Key words: Finite state automata / regular languages.
© EDP Sciences, 2008
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