Feasible automata for two-variable logic with successor on data words

Abstract

We introduce an automata model for data words, that is words that carry at each position a symbol from a finite alphabet and a value from an unbounded data domain. The model is (semantically) a restriction of data automata, introduced by Bojanczyk, et. al. in 2006, therefore it is called weak data automata. It is strictly less expressive than data automata and the expressive power is incomparable with register automata. The expressive power of weak data automata corresponds exactly to existential monadic second order logic with successor +1 and data value equality ∼, EMSO 2(+1,∼). It follows from previous work, David, et. al. in 2010, that the nonemptiness problem for weak data automata can be decided in 2-NEXPTIME. Furthermore, we study weak Büchi automata on data ω-strings. They can be characterized by the extension of EMSO 2(+1,∼) with existential quantifiers for infinite sets. Finally, the same complexity bound for its nonemptiness problem is established by a nondeterministic polynomial time reduction to the nonemptiness problem of weak data automata. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.