Finite Automaton



Step     of


Final Decision:

Path-local Decision:




Remarks
  • Both deterministic and nondeterministic variants of a two-way finite-state accepter are equivalent in power to a one-way deterministic finite-state accepter.
    • The original proof was given by Rabin and Scott (1959), who also proposed the idea of two-way accepters.
    • Shepherdson (1959) subsequently published a simpler proof and showed that an n-state deterministic two-way accepter can be converted to a deterministic one-way accepter with O((n + 1)n + 1) states.
    • Recently, Hulden (2015) proposed a simpler conversion regular expression-based strategy for converting a two-way deterministic finite-state accepter to a deterministic one-way accepter.
  • Sadoka and Sipser (1978) posed questions on the cost of simulating nondeterministic finite-state accepters via two-way accepters — which remain open problems (Pighizzini, 2012):
    • Cost of simulating a nondeterministic one-way finite-state accepter via a deterministic two-way accepter
    • Cost of simulating a nondeterministic two-way finite-state accepter via a deterministic two-way accepter