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An Algebraic Approach to the Study of Quantum Finite Automata

Andrea Benso

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In this thesis we will study the decidability of the Intersection problem for the measure-once quantum finite automata introduced by Moore and Crutchfield in the 2000s. Specifically, we ask for which families of grammars it is possible to find conditions ensuring that, given a language recognized by such model of computation and a language generated by such families of grammars, it is decidable whether or not they have a nonempty intersection. Throughout the thesis, we will investigate the correlation between this problem and some decidability problems for matrices subsets on the Zariski topology, so as to apply the corresponding results to show the decidability of the problem for languages generated by monoidal context-free grammars and restricted matrix context-free grammars of finite index.

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In this thesis we will study the decidability of the Intersection problem for the measure-once quantum finite automata introduced by Moore and Crutchfield in the 2000s. Specifically, we ask for which families of grammars it is possible to find conditions ensuring that, given a language recognized by such model of computation and a language generated by such families of grammars, it is decidable whether or not they have a nonempty intersection. Throughout the thesis, we will investigate the correlation between this problem and some decidability problems for matrices subsets on the Zariski topology, so as to apply the corresponding results to show the decidability of the problem for languages generated by monoidal context-free grammars and restricted matrix context-free grammars of finite index.
In the past year two different models of quantum finite automata have been proposed. The first model, introduced by Moore and Crutchfield[MC98], makes one measurement on its state at the end of its computation and is called a measure-once quantum finite automata. The second model, introduced by Kondacs and Watrous[KW97], makes a measurement of its state after every transition and is called a measure-many quantum finite automata. In this thesis we investigate the characteristics of the two models. We characterize measure-once quantum finite automata when they are restricted to acceptance with bounded error, and we show that, when they are not so restricted, they can solve the word problem over the free group. We show that they can be simulated by probabilistic finite automata, which implies that they are no more powerful than probabilistic finite automata. We also describe an algorithm that determines if two automata are equivalent. We show that the class of languages accepted by measure-many quantum finite automata is closed under quotient, complement, and inverse homomorphisms. We prove a necessary condition for a language to be accepted by a measure-many automaton with bounded error and we show that certain sets, including piecewise testable sets, can be accepted with bounded error by this automata.
The computational model of Quantum Finite Automata has been introduced by multiple authors (e.g. [38, 44]) with some variations in definition. The objective of this thesis is to understand what class of languages can be recognized by these different variations, and how many states are required. We begin by showing that we can use algebraic automata theory to characterize the language recognition power of QFAs. Algebraic automata theory associates to each language a canonical syntactic monoid, and the algebraic structure of this monoid becomes a meaningful parameter in describing language classes. We show that the class of languages recognized by Latvian QFAs [3] corresponds exactly to boolean combinations of languages recognized by Brodsky and Pippenger's QFA model [20], which correspond exactly to those languages whose syntactic monoid is in the class BG. Known results give us a decision procedure for testing membership in this language class. We also use algebraic automata theory to give nearly tight upper and lower bounds on the class of languages recognized by Brodsky and Pippenger's QFAs. We then extend a number of lower bound techniques known for Kondacs and Watrous' 1-way QFA model to Nayak's Generalized QFA. Both of these models are related in that they are permitted to halt before reading the entire input, allowing them to recognize certain languages whose syntactic monoid lies outside of BG. Finally, we investigate the question of QFA succinctness. It is known that QFAs can recognize some languages using exponentially fewer states compared to deterministic finite automata. We extend results from [16] to show that the word problem over abelian groups has this property. We also give example of interesting noncommutative languages with this property.
The 2-way quantum finite automaton introduced by Kondacs and Watrous [Proceedings of the 38th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1997, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 66--75] can accept nonregular languages with bounded error in polynomial time. If we restrict the head of the automaton to moving classically and to moving only in one direction, the acceptance power of this 1-way quantum finite automaton is reduced to a proper subset of the regular languages. In this paper we study two different models of 1-way quantum finite automata. The first model, termed measure-once quantum finite automata, was introduced by Moore and Crutchfield [Theoret. Comput. Sci., 237 (2000), pp. 275--306], and the second model, termed measure-many quantum finite automata, was introduced by Kondacs and Watrous [Proceedings of the38th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1997, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 66--75]. We characterize the measure-once model when it is restricted to accepting with bounded error and show that, without that restriction, it can solve the word problem over the free group. We also show that it can be simulated by a probabilistic finite automaton and describe an algorithm that determines if two measure-once automata are equivalent. We prove several closure properties of the classes of languages accepted by measure-many automata, including inverse homomorphisms, and provide a new necessary condition for a language to be accepted by the measure-many model with bounded error. Finally, we show that piecewise testable sets can be accepted with bounded error by a measure-many quantum finite automaton, introducing new construction techniques for quantum automata in the process.
To study quantum computation, Moore and Crutchfield (Theoret. Comput. Sci. vol. 237, pp. 275-306, 2000) proposed quantum versions of finite-state and push-down automata, as well as regular and context-free grammars. In this note, we show that the languages generated by regular quantum grammars are equivalent to the languages generated by regular grammars. Therefore, from the perspective of generating languages, regular quantum grammars are not more powerful than classical regular grammars. This implies that it may be necessary to look for more well-formed definitions of quantum grammars and maybe those of quantum automata.