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Midterm 1 Eview

This document provides an overview and review for Midterm 1 in the course CIS 2620 Automata, Computability, and Complexity. The midterm will cover topics on automata from lectures A1-A9 and will take place on October 3rd in various locations depending on students' last names. It provides examples of DFAs, regular expressions, and proofs of correctness for DFAs. It also discusses lower bounds on state complexity, closure properties of regular languages, automata constructions, and decision procedures for automata.

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23 views

Midterm 1 Eview

This document provides an overview and review for Midterm 1 in the course CIS 2620 Automata, Computability, and Complexity. The midterm will cover topics on automata from lectures A1-A9 and will take place on October 3rd in various locations depending on students' last names. It provides examples of DFAs, regular expressions, and proofs of correctness for DFAs. It also discusses lower bounds on state complexity, closure properties of regular languages, automata constructions, and decision procedures for automata.

Uploaded by

qwertyfunfunfun123
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CIS 2620

Automata, Computability, and Complexity

Fall 2023

Instructor: Rajeev Alur

Midterm 1 Review
Midterm Exam

Midterm 1: Tuesday, Oct 3, Noon -1.30pm

o Last name: A-L : Heilmeier Hall (Towne 101)


o Last name: M-S: DRLB A2
o Last name: T-Z: DRLB A6

Out of 50pts

Topics: Automata; Lectures A1 – A9

Open textbook, lecture slides, handouts, homework solutions

See Piazza for two past midterms

2
DFAs, NFAs, and Regular Expressions

S = {a, b, c };

DFA M: a
b
q0 q1
b
c a,c
q2 a, b, c

Is this regular expression correct for above M: (a* b b )*

Need to know: How to construct a DFA/NFA/Reg-exp from a


description, and how to understand the constraint expressed by a
given DFA/NFA/Reg-exp

3
a
Correctness Proof for DFAs q0
a
q1

b b
a a
Given A described by a mathematical constraint over strings q2 q3
how to show that a DFA M accepts exactly strings in A
b b

To prove: For all strings w,

d*(q0, w) = q0 if count(w,a) is even and w does not end with b


= q1 if count(w,a) is odd and w does not end with b
= q2 if count(w,a) is even and w ends with b
= q3 if count(w,a) is odd and w ends with b

Prove the claim by induction on string w


Need to know: What is the proof technique, how to use it, and why do we
need it ?

Aside: Write reg-exp that describes strings corresponding to q 1


4
Lower Bounds and Non-regularity

Given A, how do we show that every DFA accepting A must have at least k
states ? Or that A is not regular ?

Two strings u and v are distinguishable w.r.t. A if there exists an


extension w such that only one of u.w and v.w is in A

To show DFA for A needs at least k states, find a set S of k pair-wise


distinguishable strings
To show A is not regular, find an infinite set S of pair-wise
distinguishable strings

Complete the proof: don’t just give S


Consider all possible cases of pairs of strings in S
Don’t apply proof patterns without careful thought!

5
Lower Bounds and Non-regularity

Exercise: A = { w | count(w,a) > count(w, b) }

Exercise: S = {a, b}; Ak = { w | w contains a^k as a substring }

Exercise: S contains k symbols;


Ak = { w | no symbol occurs more than once in w }

6
Closure Properties

What does it mean for regular languages to be closed under operation X?

Know basic closure constructions:


Product (for intersection)
How to complement
Concatenation, Kleene-star

If we define new operation X on strings, then to show that regular


languages are closed under this operation X:
Consider a DFA M for A
Show how to construct NFA/DFA M’ which accepts a string w
if and only if w can be obtained by applying X to a string accepted by M

First step in construction: understanding what M’ needs to check

7
Closure Properties Example Problem

Substring(A) = { w | w is a substring of some string in A }

Show that regular languages are closed under Substring operation

8
Automata Constructions

1. How to translate an NFA (or e-NFA) to a DFA ?


Subset construction, what’s its cost?

2. How to translate a regular expression to e-NFA?


Closure constructions for union, concatenation, Kleene-star

3. How to minimize a DFA ?


Polynomial-time algorithm to find pairs of distinguishable
states

9
Decision Procedures

Membership question:
Given a DFA M and input w, does M accept w ?
Non-acceptance :
Given a DFA M and input w, does M reject w ?
Emptiness question:
Given a DFA M, is there a string that M accepts ?
Universality question:
Given a DFA M, does M accept all strings ?
Equivalence question:
Given two DFAs M and M’, do they accept exactly same languages ?

What happens if instead of DFA, input is an NFA, or a regular expression?

10

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