Introduction to Automata

Theory
Reading: Chapter 1

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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. Complexity
 computability theory is concerned with what can be computed versus what cannot;
complexity is concerned with the resources required to compute the things that are
computable.
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(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?

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Theory of Computation: 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” problems
1970- Modern computer science: compilers,
computational & complexity theory evolve
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 Languages & Grammars
 Languages: “A language is a
Or “words” collection of sentences of
finite length all constructed
from a finite alphabet of
symbols”
 Grammars: “A grammar can
be regarded as a device that
enumerates the sentences
of a language” - nothing
more, nothing less

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

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The Chomsky Hierachy
• A containment hierarchy of classes of formal languages

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

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The Central Concepts of
Automata Theory

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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}
 …

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Strings
A string or word is a finite sequence of symbols
chosen from ∑
 Empty string is  (or “epsilon”)

 Length of a string w, denoted by “|w|”, is

equal to the number of (non- ) characters in the
string
 E.g., x = 010100 |x| = 6
 x = 01  0  1  00  |x| = ?

 xy = concatentation of two strings x and y

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Powers of an alphabet
Let ∑ be an alphabet.

 ∑k = the set of all strings of length k

 ∑* = ∑0 U ∑1 U ∑2 U …

 ∑+ = ∑ 1 U ∑ 2 U ∑ 3 U …

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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
length including 0) over the given alphabet ∑
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,…}
Canonical ordering of strings in the language

Definition: Ø denotes the Empty language

 Let L = {}; Is L=Ø?
NO
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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?

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

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Finite Automata : Examples
action
 On/Off switch state

 Modeling recognition of the word “then”

Start state Transition Intermediate Final state

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

Start with a letter

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

Other space delimited words

(part of city name) 15
Formal Proofs

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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≥4, then 2y≥y2.”
given conclusion

(there are other ways of writing this).

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 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.
Claim 2:
Given x and assuming that Claim 1 is true, prove that 2 x≥x2
 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 ≥ x 2 (by 4 and Claim 1)
“implies” or “follows”
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 On Theorems, Lemmas and Corollaries
We typically refer to:
 A major result as a “theorem”

 An intermediate result that we show to prove a larger result as a

“lemma”
 A result that follows from an already proven result as a

“corollary”

An example:
Theorem: The height of an n-node binary
tree is at least floor(lg n)
Lemma: Level i of a perfect binary tree has
2i nodes.
Corollary: A perfect binary tree of height h
has 2h+1-1 nodes.
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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”

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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
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Proving techniques…
 By counter-example
 Show an example that disproves the claim

 Note: There is no such thing called a

“proof by example”!
 So when asked to prove a claim, an example that

satisfied that claim is not a proof

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

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“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 and only if” is abbreviated as “iff”
 i.e., “A iff B”
 Example:
 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”
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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

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