Widening techniques for regular tree model checking

Regular model checking is a generic technique for verification of infinite-state and/or parametrised systems which uses finite word automata or finite tree automata to finitely represent potentially infinite sets of reachable configurations of the systems being verified. The problems addressed by regular model checking are typically undecidable. In order to facilitate termination in as many cases as possible, acceleration is needed in the incremental computation of the set of reachable configurations in regular model checking. In this work, we describe how various incrementally refinable abstractions on finite (word and tree) automata can be used for this purpose. Moreover, the use of abstraction does not only increase chances of the technique to terminate, but it also significantly reduces the problem of an explosion in the number of states of the automata that are generated by regular model checking. We illustrate the efficiency of abstract regular (tree) model checking in verification of simple systems with various sources of infinity such as unbounded counters, queues, stacks, and parameters. We then show how abstract regular tree model checking can be used for verification of programs manipulating tree-like dynamic data structures. Even more complex data structures can be handled using a suitable tree-like encoding.

Closure properties of linear context-free tree languages with an application to optimality theory

Regular tree expressions are a formalism for describing regular tree languages, which can be accepted by a finite tree automaton as a standard model of computation. It was proved that the class of regular tree languages is a proper subclass of tree languages whose linear notations can be accepted by deterministic string pushdown automata. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for transforming regular tree expressions to equivalent real-time height-deterministic pushdown automata that accept the trees in their postfix notation.

Regular model checking is a technique for the verification of infinite-state systems whose configurations can be represented as finite words over a suitable alphabet. The form we are studying applies to systems whose set of initial configurations is regular, and whose transition relation is captured by a length-preserving transducer. To verify safety properties, regular model checking iteratively computes automata recognizing increasingly larger regular sets of reachable configurations, and checks if they contain unsafe configurations. Since this procedure often does not terminate, acceleration, abstraction, and widening techniques have been developed to compute a regular superset of the reachable configurations. In this paper, we develop a complementary procedure. Instead of approaching the set of reachable configurations from below, we start with the set of all configurations and approach it from above. We use that the set of reachable configurations is equal to the intersection of all inductive invariants of the system. Since this intersection is non-regular in general, we introduce b-invariants, defined as those representable by CNF-formulas with at most b clauses. We prove that, for every $b\geq0$, the intersection of all inductive b-invariants is regular, and we construct an automaton recognizing it. We show that whether this automaton accepts some unsafe configuration is in EXPSPACE for every $b\geq0$, and PSPACE-complete for b=1. Finally, we study how large must b be to prove safety properties of a number of benchmarks.

Computing the relative entropy between regular tree languages

Tree-automatic scattered linear orders

Tree regular model checking: A simulation-based approach

Regular model checking is a form of symbolic model checking technique for systems whose states can be represented as finite words over a finite alphabet, where regular sets are used as symbolic representation. A major problem in symbolic model checking of parameterized and infinite-state systems is that fixpoint computations to generate the set of reachable states or the set of reachable loops do not terminate in general. Therefore, acceleration techniques have been developed, which calculate the effect of arbitrarily long sequences of transitions generated by some action. We present a systematic method for using acceleration in regular model checking, for the case where each transition changes at most one position in the word; this includes many parameterized algorithms and algorithms on data structures. The method extracts a maximal (in a certain sense) set of actions from a transition relation. These actions, and systematically obtained compositions of them, are accelerated to speed up a fixpoint computation. The extraction can be done on any representation of the transition relation, e.g., as a union of actions or as a single monolithic transducer. Using this approach, we are for the first time able to verify completely automatically both safety and absence of starvation properties for a collection of parameterized synchronization protocols from the literature; for some protocols, we obtain significant improvements in verification time. The results show that symbolic state-space exploration, without using abstractions, is a viable alternative for verification of parameterized systems with a linear topology.KeywordsModel CheckTransition RelationReachable StateLiveness PropertySymbolic Model CheckThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Regular tree languages are a popular device for reachability analysis over term rewrite systems, with many applications like analysis of cryptographic protocols, or confluence and termination analysis. At the heart of this approach lies tree automata completion, first introduced by Genet for left-linear rewrite systems. Korp and Middeldorp introduced so-called quasi-deterministic automata to extend the technique to non-left-linear systems. In this paper, we introduce the simpler notion of quasi-compatible automata, which are slightly more general than quasi-deterministic, compatible automata. This notion also allows us to decide whether a regular tree language is closed under rewriting, a problem which was not known to be decidable before. Several of our results have been formalized in the theorem prover Isabelle/HOL. This allows to certify automatically generated non-confluence and termination proofs that are using tree automata techniques.

We study the problem of learning regular tree languages from text. We show that the framework of function distinguishability as introduced in our ALT 2000 paper is generalizable from the case of string languages towards tree languages, hence providing a large source of identifiable classes of regular tree languages. Each of these classes can be characterized in various ways. Moreover, we present a generic inference algorithm with polynomial update time and prove its correctness. In this way, we generalize previous works of Angluin, Sakakibara and ourselves. Moreover, we show that this way all regular tree languages can be identified approximately.

The generative capacity of combinatory categorial grammars as acceptors of tree languages is investigated. It is demonstrated that the such obtained tree languages can also be generated by simple monadic context-free tree grammars. However, the subclass of pure combinatory categorial grammars cannot even accept all regular tree languages. Additionally, the tree languages accepted by combinatory categorial grammars with limited rule degrees are characterized: If only application rules are allowed, then they can accept only a proper subset of the regular tree languages, whereas they can accept exactly the regular tree languages once first degree composition rules are permitted.

We present effective criteria for first-order definability of regular tree languages. It is known that over words the absence of modulo counting (the “noncounting property”) characterizes the expressive power of first-order logic (McNaughton, Schutzenberger), whereas non-counting regular tree languages exist which are not first-order definable. We present new conditions on regular tree languages (more precisely, on tree automata) which imply nondefinability in first-order logic. One method is based on tree homomorphisms which allow to deduce nondefinability of one tree language from nondefinability of another tree language. Additionly we introduce a structural property of tree automata (the socalled Λ-∨-patterns) which also causes tree languages to be undefinable in first-order logic. Finally, it is shown that this notion does not yet give a complete characterization of first-order logic over trees. The proofs rely on the method of Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse games.

We propose abstract regular model checking as a new generic technique for verification of parametric and infinite-state systems. The technique combines the two approaches of regular model checking and verification by abstraction. We propose a general framework of the method as well as several concrete ways of abstracting automata or transducers, which we use for modelling systems and encoding sets of their configurations as usual in regular model checking. The abstraction is based on collapsing states of automata (or transducers) and its precision is being incrementally adjusted by analysing spurious counterexamples. We illustrate the technique on verification of a wide range of systems including a novel application of automata-based techniques to an example of systems with dynamic linked data structures.

Recently, the question has been raised whether the derivation tree languages of Minimalist grammars (MGs; [14, 16]) are closed under intersection with regular tree languages [4, 5]. Using a variation of a proof technique devised by Thatcher [17], I show that even though closure under intersection does not obtain, it holds for every MG and regular tree language that their intersection is identical to the derivation tree language of some MG modulo category labels. It immediately follows that the same closure property holds with respect to union, relative complement, and certain kinds of linear transductions. Moreover, enriching MGs with the ability to put regular constraints on the shape of their derivation trees does not increase the formalism’s weak generative capacity. This makes it straightforward to implement numerous linguistically motivated constraints on the Move operation.KeywordsMinimalist GrammarsDerivation Tree LanguagesClosure PropertiesRegular Tree LanguagesDerivational Constraints

Language theoretic properties of regular DAG languages