Systems of Graph Formulas and their Equivalence to Alternating Graph Automata

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Drewes, Frank, Hoffmann, Berthold, Minas, Mark
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Drewes, Frank
Hoffmann, Berthold
Minas, Mark
author_facet Drewes, Frank
Hoffmann, Berthold
Minas, Mark
contents Graph-based modeling plays a fundamental role in many areas of computer science. In this paper, we introduce systems of graph formulas with variables for specifying graph properties; this notion generalizes the graph formulas introduced in earlier work by incorporating recursion. We show that these formula systems have the same expressive power as alternating graph automata, a computational model that extends traditional finite-state automata to graphs, and allows both existential and universal states. In particular, we provide a bidirectional translation between formula systems and alternating graph automata, proving their equivalence in specifying graph languages. This result implies that alternating graph automata can be naturally represented using logic-based formulations, thus bridging the gap between automata-theoretic and logic-based approaches to graph language specification.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_25260
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Systems of Graph Formulas and their Equivalence to Alternating Graph Automata
Drewes, Frank
Hoffmann, Berthold
Minas, Mark
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Graph-based modeling plays a fundamental role in many areas of computer science. In this paper, we introduce systems of graph formulas with variables for specifying graph properties; this notion generalizes the graph formulas introduced in earlier work by incorporating recursion. We show that these formula systems have the same expressive power as alternating graph automata, a computational model that extends traditional finite-state automata to graphs, and allows both existential and universal states. In particular, we provide a bidirectional translation between formula systems and alternating graph automata, proving their equivalence in specifying graph languages. This result implies that alternating graph automata can be naturally represented using logic-based formulations, thus bridging the gap between automata-theoretic and logic-based approaches to graph language specification.
title Systems of Graph Formulas and their Equivalence to Alternating Graph Automata
topic Formal Languages and Automata Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25260