Introduction to Automata

Theoryy
Reading: Chapter 1

1
What is Automata Theory?
 Study of abstract computing devices, or
“machines”
 Automaton = an abstract computing device
 Note: A “device” need not even be a physical
hardware!
 A fundamental question in computer science:
 Find out what different models of machines can do
and cannot do
 The theory of computation
 Computability vs
vs. Complexity
2
(A pioneer of automata theory)

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

 Father of Modern Computer
Science

 English mathematician

 Studied abstract machines called

Turing machines even before
computers existed

 Heard of the Turing test?

3
Theoryy of Computation:
p A
Historical Perspective
1930s • Alan Turing studies Turing machines
• Decidability
• Halting problem
1940-1950s • “Finite automata” machines studied
• Noam Chomsky proposes the
“Chomsky Hierarchy” for formal
languages
1969 Cook introduces “intractable” problems
or “NP-Hard” p
problems
1970- Modern computer science: compilers,
computational & complexity theory evolve
4
 Languages & Grammars
 Languages: “A language is a
Or “words” collection of sentences of
finite length all constructed
f
from a finite
fi it alphabet
l h b t off
symbols”
 Grammars: “A grammar can
be regarded as a device that
enumerates the sentences of
a language” - nothing more,
nothing less

 N. Chomsky, Information
and Control, Vol 2, 1959

Image source: Nowak et al. Nature, vol 417, 2002

5
The Chomsky Hierachy
• A containment
t i t hierarchy
hi h off classes
l off fformall llanguages

Regular
g Context-
(DFA) Context-
C t t
free Recursively-
sensitive
(PDA) enumerable
(LBA) (TM)

6
The Central Concepts of
Automata Theory

7
Alphabet
An alphabet is a finite, non-empty set of
symbols
 We use the symbol ∑ (sigma) to denote an
alphabet
 Examples:
 Binary: ∑ = {0,1}
 All lower case letters: ∑ = {{a,b,c,..z}
, , , }
 Alphanumeric: ∑ = {a-z, A-Z, 0-9}
 DNA molecule letters: ∑ = {a,c,g,t}
 …
8
Strings
A string or word is a finite sequence of symbols
chosen from ∑
 Empty string is  (or “epsilon”)

 Length
L th off a string
t i w, denoted
d t db by “|
“|w|”,
|” is
i
equal to the number of (non- ) characters in the
string
g
 E.g., x = 010100 |x| = 6
 x = 01  0  1  00  |x| = ?

 xy = concatentation of two strings x and y

9
Powers of an alphabet
Let ∑ be an alphabet.

 ∑k = the
th sett off allll strings
ti off length
l th k

 ∑* = ∑0 U ∑1 U ∑2 U …
∑

 ∑+ = ∑1 U ∑2 U ∑3 U …

10
Languages
L is a said to be a language over alphabet ∑, only if L  ∑*
 this is because ∑* is the set of all strings (of all possible
g including
length g 0)) over the g
given alphabet
p ∑
Examples:
1. Let L be the language of all strings consisting of n 0’s
followed by n 1’s:
L = {,01,0011,000111,…}
2. Let L be the language of all strings of with equal number of
0’s and 1’s:
L = {,01,10,0011,1100,0101,1010,1001,…}
{ 01 10 0011 1100 0101 1010 1001 }

Definition: Ø denotes the Empty language

 Let L = {}; Is L=Ø? NO

11
The Membership Problem
Given a string w ∑*and a language L
over ∑, decide whether or not w L.

Example:
Let w = 100011
Q) Is w  the language of strings with
equal number of 0s and 1s?

12
Finite Automata
 Some Applications
 Software for designing and checking the behavior
off digital
di it l circuits
i it
 Lexical analyzer of a typical compiler
 Software
So a e for
o sca
scanning
g large
a ge bod
bodies
es o of text
e (e(e.g.,
g,
web pages) for pattern finding
 Software for verifying systems of all types that
have a finite number of states (e(e.g.,
g stock market
transaction, communication/network protocol)

13
Finite Automata : Examples
action
 On/Off switch state

 Modeling recognition of the word “then”

Start state Transition Intermediate Final state

state
14
Structural expressions
 Grammars
 Regular expressions
 E.g., unix style to capture city names such
as “Palo
Palo Alto CA”:
CA :
 [A-Z][a-z]*([ ][A-Z][a-z]*)*[ ][A-Z][A-Z]

Start with a letter

A string of other
letters (p
(possibly
y Should end w/ 2-letter state code
empty)

Other space delimited words

(part of city name) 15
Formal Proofs

16
Deductive Proofs
From the given statement(s) to a conclusion
statement (what we want to prove)
 Logical progression by direct implications

Example for parsing a statement:

 “If y
y≥4,, then 2y≥yy2.”
given conclusion

(there are other ways of writing this).

17
 Example: Deductive proof
Let Claim 1: If y≥4, then 2y≥y2.

Let x be any number which is obtained by adding the squares

of 4 positive integers.

Given x and
Gi d assuming
i that
th t Claim
Cl i 1 is
i true,
t prove that
th t 2x≥x
≥ 2
 Proof:
1) Given: x = a2 + b2 + c2 + d2
2) Given: a≥1, b≥1, c≥1, d≥1
3)  a2≥1, b2≥1, c2≥1, d2≥1 (by 2)
4) x≥4 (by 1 & 3)
5)  2x ≥ x2 (by 4 and Claim 1)
“implies” or “follows”
18
 Quantifiers
“For all” or “For every”
 Universal proofs
 Notation*=?
“There exists”
 Used in existential proofs
 Notation*=?
Implication is denoted by =>
>
 E.g., “IF A THEN B” can also be written as “A=>B”

*Iwasn’t able to locate the symbol for these notation in powerpoint. Sorry!
Please follow the standard notation for these quantifiers.
19
Proving techniques
 By contradiction
 Start with the statement contradictory to the given
statement
 E.g., To prove (A => B), we start with:
 (A and ~B)
 … and then show that could never happen

What if you want to prove that “(A and B => C or D)”?

 By induction
 (3 steps) Basis, inductive hypothesis, inductive step
 By contrapositive statement
 If A then B ≡ If ~B then ~A
20
Proving techniques…
 By counter-example
 Show an example that disproves the claim

 Note: There is no such thing called a

“proof
p by
y example”!
p
 So when asked to prove a claim, an example that
satisfied that claim is not a proof

21
Different ways of saying the same
thing
 “If H then C”:
i. H implies
p C
ii. H => C
iii. C if H
iv. H only if C
v. Whenever H holds, C follows

22
“If-and-Only-If” statements
 “A if and only if B” (A <==> B)
 (if part) if B then A ( <= )
 (only if part) A only if B ( => )
(same as “if A then B”)
 “If
If and only if”
if is abbreviated as “iff”
iff
 i.e., “A iff B”
 Example:
p
 Theorem: Let x be a real number. Then floor of x =
ceiling of x if and only if x is an integer.
 Proofs for iff have two parts
 One for the “if part” & another for the “only if part”
23
Summary
 Automata theory & a historical perspective
 Chomsky hierarchy
 Finite automata
 Alphabets, strings/words/sentences, languages
 Membership problem
 Proofs:
 Deductive, induction, contrapositive, contradiction,
counterexample
 If and only if

 Read chapter 1 for more examples and exercises

 Gradiance homework 1

24