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On some decidable properties of finite state translations

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Summary

In this paper we present algorithms to decide: 1) single-valuedness of nondeterministic finite transducers, 2) equivalence of single-valued transducers, and 3) whether a given nondeterministic finite transduction can be realized by a deterministic transducer. When such a deterministic realization is possible our proof gives an effective construction of the deterministic transducer.

The decidability of single-valuedness and equivalence for a-transducers has been obtained independently by Blattner and Head [3]. Our results introduce different characterizations for decidability and use a different proof that is interesting on its own.

We began this research by generalizing the results about decoding automata presented in [5]. A report of these results with a heavy emphasis placed on applications to crytography appears in [6]. This paper presents results applicable in the more general area of finite state translations.

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Demers, A., Keleman, C. & Reusch, B. On some decidable properties of finite state translations. Acta Informatica 17, 349–364 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00264358

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