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    Chapter 2: Finite Automata

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    Evelyn RM
    This document provides an overview of nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs), including their formal definition, transition graphs, extended transition function, and how they are used to represent choices more succinctly than deterministic finite automata (DFAs). Key points covered include: the transition function of an NFA maps states and inputs to a set of possible successor states rather than a single state, allowing for nondeterminism; the extended transition function specifies all possible state transitions along paths in the transition graph; and NFAs can represent the union of languages from two NFAs more compactly than DFAs.

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    Chapter 2: Finite Automata

    Uploaded by

    Evelyn RM
    46 views5 pages
    This document provides an overview of nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs), including their formal definition, transition graphs, extended transition function, and how they are used to represent choices more succinctly than deterministic finite automata (DFAs). Key points covered include: the transition function of an NFA maps states and inputs to a set of possible successor states rather than a single state, allowing for nondeterminism; the extended transition function specifies all possible state transitions along paths in the transition graph; and NFAs can represent the union of languages from two NFAs more compactly than DFAs.

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    automata

    Original Title

    automata 2.2

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    This document provides an overview of nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs), including their formal definition, transition graphs, extended transition function, and how they are used to represent choices more succinctly than deterministic finite automata (DFAs). Key points covered include: the transition function of an NFA maps states and inputs to a set of possible successor states rather than a single state, allowing for nondeterminism; the extended transition function specifies all possible state transitions along paths in the transition graph; and NFAs can represent the union of languages from two NFAs more compactly than DFAs.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views5 pages

    Chapter 2: Finite Automata

    Uploaded by

    Evelyn RM
    This document provides an overview of nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs), including their formal definition, transition graphs, extended transition function, and how they are used to represent choices more succinctly than deterministic finite automata (DFAs). Key points covered include: the transition function of an NFA maps states and inputs to a set of possible successor states rather than a single state, allowing for nondeterminism; the extended transition function specifies all possible state transitions along paths in the transition graph; and NFAs can represent the union of languages from two NFAs more compactly than DFAs.

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    of 5

    Chapter 2: Finite Automata ∗

    Peter Cappello
    Department of Computer Science
    University of California, Santa Barbara
    Santa Barbara, CA 93106
    [email protected]

    • Please read the corresponding chapter before attending this lecture.


    • These notes are not complete. They are supplemented with figures and mate-
    rial that arises during the lecture in response to questions.
    • Please report any errors in these notes to me ([email protected]). I’ll fix
    them immediately.
    ∗
    Based on An Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata, 3rd Ed., Peter Linz, Jones and Bartlett
    Publishers, Inc.

    1
    2.2 Nondeterministic Finite Acceptors

    Definition of a Nondeterministic Finite Acceptor

    Defn. 2.4 A nondeterministic finite acceptor (NFA) is defined


    by a 5-tuple
    M = (Q, Σ, δ, q0, F ),
    where Q, Σ, q0, F are defined as for DFAs, but
    δ : Q × (Σ ∪ {λ}) 7→ 2Q.
    This definition differs from that for a DFA in 3 ways:
    • The value of the transition function is a set of successor states.
    • The set of successor states may be empty: There is no successor
    state.
    • The transition function allows moves “on λ” that do not advance the
    read head.

    2
    Transition graphs for NFAs are suitably modified:
    • If
    δ(q, a) = {s1 , s2, . . . , sk },
    where each si ∈ Q, then there is an arc labelled a (including λ) from
    the node labelled q to each of the nodes labelled s1, s2, . . . , sk .

    Figure 1: An NFA

    • Transitions that are unspecified implicitly indicate a transition to the


    empty set: There is no successor state, illustrated in Fig. 2.

    Figure 2: An NFA that accepts {01n : n ≥ 0}.

    The transition function, δ, is extended analogously. We describe it in


    terms of transition graphs:

    3
    Defn. 2.5 For an NFA, the extended transition function is defined
    so that δ ∗(q, w) contains q 0 ⇔ there is a path in the TG from q to q 0
    labelled w, ∀q, q 0 ∈ Q, w ∈ Σ∗.
    For the NFA given in Fig. 3, what is:
    • δ ∗(q0 , a)?
    • δ ∗(q1 , λ)?
    • δ ∗(q1 , a)?
    • δ ∗(q2 , a)?
    • δ ∗(q0 , b)?

    Figure 3: An NFA for {an : n > 0}.

    Informally, a word w is accepted by an NFA if there is a path labelled


    w from its initial state to some final state.

    4
    Defn. 2.6 The language L(M ) accepted by NFA M = (Q, Σ, δ, q0, F )
    is
    {w ∈ Σ∗ : δ ∗(q0, w) ∩ F 6= ∅}.

    Why Nondeterminism?

    Although many reasons may be put forth, 1 reason is that choices are
    represented by nondeterminism succinctly.
    For example, given NFA M1 and NFA M2, construct an NFA M3 such
    that L(M3) = L(M1) ∪ L(M2).

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