Quantum versus probabilistic one-way finite automata with counter

Abstract

The paper adds the one-counter one-way finite automaton [6] to the list of classical computing devices having quantum counterparts more powerful in some cases. Specifically, two languages are considered, the first is not recognizable by deterministic one-counter one-way finite automata, the second is not recognizable with bounded error by probabilistic one-counter one-way finite automata, but each recognizable with bounded error by a quantum one-counter one-way finite automaton. This result contrasts the case of one-way finite automata without counter, where it is known [5] that the quantum device is actually less powerful than its classical counterpart.