Transformations Between Different Models of Unranked Bottom-Up Tree Automata

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Piao, Xiaoxue | Salomaa, Kai

Affiliations: School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. {piao, ksalomaa}@cs.queensu.ca

Note: [] Research supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Address for correspondence: School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada

Abstract: We consider the representational state complexity of unranked tree automata. The bottom-up computation of an unranked tree automaton may be either deterministic or nondeterministic, and further variants arise depending on whether the horizontal string languages defining the transitions are represented by a DFA or an NFA. Also, we consider for unranked tree automata the alternative syntactic definition of determinism introduced by Cristau et al. (FCT'05, LNCS 3623, pp. 68–79). We establish upper and lower bounds for the state complexity of conversions between different types of unranked tree automata.

Keywords: tree automata, unranked trees, state complexity, nondeterminism

DOI: 10.3233/FI-2011-519

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 109, no. 4, pp. 405-424, 2011