A substitution lemma for multiple context-free languages

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Duncan, Andrew, Elder, Murray, Frenkel, Lisa, Lyu, Mengfan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Duncan, Andrew
Elder, Murray
Frenkel, Lisa
Lyu, Mengfan
author_facet Duncan, Andrew
Elder, Murray
Frenkel, Lisa
Lyu, Mengfan
contents We present a necessary condition for an infinite language to be multiple context-free, which we call a Substitution Lemma. We apply it to show a sample selection of languages are not multiple context-free, including the word problem of the group $F_2\times F_2$. We also show that groups with multiple context-free word problem have decidable rational subset membership problem. Our result contrasts with previous work showing that the standard pumping lemma for context-free languages cannot be generalised to multiple context-free languages, and that weak variants of generalised Ogden's lemma do not apply to multiple context-free languages.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_02117
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A substitution lemma for multiple context-free languages
Duncan, Andrew
Elder, Murray
Frenkel, Lisa
Lyu, Mengfan
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Group Theory
20E06, 68Q45
We present a necessary condition for an infinite language to be multiple context-free, which we call a Substitution Lemma. We apply it to show a sample selection of languages are not multiple context-free, including the word problem of the group $F_2\times F_2$. We also show that groups with multiple context-free word problem have decidable rational subset membership problem. Our result contrasts with previous work showing that the standard pumping lemma for context-free languages cannot be generalised to multiple context-free languages, and that weak variants of generalised Ogden's lemma do not apply to multiple context-free languages.
title A substitution lemma for multiple context-free languages
topic Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Group Theory
20E06, 68Q45
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02117