From post systems to the reachability problems for matrix semigroups and multicounter automata

  • Authors:
  • Igor Potapov

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K.

  • Venue:
  • DLT'04 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Developments in Language Theory
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

The main result of this paper is the reduction of PCP(n) to the vector reachability problem for a matrix semigroup generated by n 4 × 4 integral matrices. It follows that the vector reachability problem is undecidable for a semigroup generated by 7 integral matrices of dimension 4. The question whether the vector reachability problem is decidable for n = 2 and n = 3 remains open. Also we show that proposed technique can be applied to Post’s tag-systems. As a result we define new classes of counter automata that lie on the border between decidability and undecidability.