Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
10.1145/1132516.1132584acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesstocConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Article

An efficient algorithm for solving word equations

Published: 21 May 2006 Publication History

Abstract

We present the first DEXPTIME algorithm which solves word equations i.e. finds a finite representation of all solutions of an equation in a free semigroup. We show how to use our approach to solve two new problems in PSPACE which deal with properties of the solution set of a word equation:
deciding finiteness of the solution set,
deciding boundness of the set of maximal exponents of periodicity of solutions.
The approach can be generalized to solve in PSPACE three problems for expressible relations, namely the emptiness of the relation, finiteness of the relation and boundness of the set of maximal exponents of periodicity of elements of the relation.

References

[1]
D. Angluin. Finding pattern common to a set of string. In Proceedings of Symposium on the Theory of Computing STOC'79, pages 130--141. ACM Press, 1979.]]
[2]
J. R. Buchi and S. Senger. Definability in the existential theory of concatenation and undecidable extensions of this theory. Zeitschrift fur Mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik, 22:337--342, 1987.]]
[3]
V. Diekert. personal communication, 1998.]]
[4]
V. Diekert. Makanin's algorithm. In M. Lothaire, editor, Algebraic aspects of combinatorics on words. Cambridge University Press, 2002.]]
[5]
V. Diekert, C. Gutierrez, and C. Hagenach. The existential theory of equations with rational constraints in free groups is pspace-complete. In Proceedings of Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science STACS'01, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2010, pages 170--182, 2001.]]
[6]
C. Gutierrez. Satisfiability of word equations with constants is in exponential space. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science FOCS'98, pages 112--119. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1998.]]
[7]
Y. I. Hmelevski. Equations in free semigroup. Trudy Matematiczeskovo Instituta Steklova, 107, 1971. English translation: Proceedings of Steklov Institute of Mathematics 107(1971), American Mathematical Society, Providenca R.I., 1976.]]
[8]
L. Ilie and W. Plandowski. Two-variable word equations. Theoretical Informatics and Applications, 34:467--501, 2000.]]
[9]
J. Jaffar. Minimal and complete word unification. Journal of the ACM, 37(1):47--85, 1990.]]
[10]
J. Karhumaeki, F. Mignosi, and W. Plandowski. The expressibility of languages and relations by word equations. Journal of the ACM, 47(5):483--505, 2000.]]
[11]
J. Karhumaeki, F. Mignosi, and W. Plandowski. On the expressibility of languages by word equations with a bounded number of variables. Bulletin of the Belgian Mathematical Society, 8(2), 2001.]]
[12]
A. Kościelski and L. Pacholski. Complexity of makanin's algorithm. Journal of the ACM, 43(4):670--684, 1996.]]
[13]
A. Kościelski and L. Pacholski. Makanin's algorithm is not primitive recursive. Theoretical Computer Science, 191:145--156, 1998.]]
[14]
G. Makanin. The problem of solvability of equations in a free semigroup. Matematiceskij Sbornik, 103(2):147--236, 1977. In Russian; English translation in: Math. USSR Sbornik, 32, 129--198, 1977.]]
[15]
G. S. Makanin. Equations in a free group. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSR Ser. Mat., 46:1199--1273, 1983. In Russian; English transl. in Math. USSR Izv. 21, 1983.]]
[16]
W. Plandowski. Satisfiability of word equations is in nexptime. In Proceedings of the Symposium on the Theory of Computing STOC'99, pages 721--725. ACM Press, 1999.]]
[17]
W. Plandowski. Satisfiability of word equations is in pspace. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science FOCS'99, pages 495--500. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1999.]]
[18]
W. Plandowski. paper in preparation, 2006.]]
[19]
W. Plandowski and W. Rytter. Application of lempel-ziv encodings to the solution of word equations. In Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming ICALP'98, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1443, pages 731--742. Springer, 1998.]]
[20]
A. A. Razborov. On systems of equations in a free group. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSR Ser. Mat., 48:779--832, 1984. In Russian; English transl. in Math. USSR Izv., 25, 115--162, 1985.]]
[21]
K. Schulz. Makanin's algorithm for word equations: two improvements and a generalization. In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Word Equations and Related Topics IWWERT'90, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 572, pages 85--150. Springer, 1992.]]

Cited By

View all
  • (2023)A Solver for Arrays with ConcatenationJournal of Automated Reasoning10.1007/s10817-022-09654-y67:1Online publication date: 7-Jan-2023
  • (2022)TensileFuzz: facilitating seed input generation in fuzzing via string constraint solvingProceedings of the 31st ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis10.1145/3533767.3534403(391-403)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2022
  • (2022)On the Satisfiability of Context-free String Constraints with Subword-OrderingProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science10.1145/3531130.3533329(1-13)Online publication date: 2-Aug-2022
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. An efficient algorithm for solving word equations

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    STOC '06: Proceedings of the thirty-eighth annual ACM symposium on Theory of Computing
    May 2006
    786 pages
    ISBN:1595931341
    DOI:10.1145/1132516
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 21 May 2006

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tag

    1. word equations

    Qualifiers

    • Article

    Conference

    STOC06
    Sponsor:
    STOC06: Symposium on Theory of Computing
    May 21 - 23, 2006
    WA, Seattle, USA

    Acceptance Rates

    Overall Acceptance Rate 1,469 of 4,586 submissions, 32%

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)22
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)3
    Reflects downloads up to 22 Sep 2024

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2023)A Solver for Arrays with ConcatenationJournal of Automated Reasoning10.1007/s10817-022-09654-y67:1Online publication date: 7-Jan-2023
    • (2022)TensileFuzz: facilitating seed input generation in fuzzing via string constraint solvingProceedings of the 31st ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis10.1145/3533767.3534403(391-403)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2022
    • (2022)On the Satisfiability of Context-free String Constraints with Subword-OrderingProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science10.1145/3531130.3533329(1-13)Online publication date: 2-Aug-2022
    • (2022)Associative unification in MaudeJournal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming10.1016/j.jlamp.2021.100747126(100747)Online publication date: Apr-2022
    • (2022)Solving String Theories Involving Regular Membership Predicates Using SATModel Checking Software10.1007/978-3-031-15077-7_8(134-151)Online publication date: 21-May-2022
    • (2022)Word Equations in the Context of String SolvingDevelopments in Language Theory10.1007/978-3-031-05578-2_2(13-32)Online publication date: 6-May-2022
    • (2021)Program Specialization as a Tool for Solving Word EquationsElectronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science10.4204/EPTCS.341.4341(42-72)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2021
    • (2021)A Survey on String Constraint SolvingACM Computing Surveys10.1145/348419855:1(1-38)Online publication date: 23-Nov-2021
    • (2021)Z3str4: A Multi-armed String SolverFormal Methods10.1007/978-3-030-90870-6_21(389-406)Online publication date: 10-Nov-2021
    • (2021)An SMT Solver for Regular Expressions and Linear Arithmetic over String LengthComputer Aided Verification10.1007/978-3-030-81688-9_14(289-312)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2021
    • Show More Cited By

    View Options

    Get Access

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Media

    Figures

    Other

    Tables

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media