Cornell University
Library
Cornell UniversityLibrary

eCommons

Help
Log In(current)
  1. Home
  2. Cornell Computing and Information Science
  3. Computer Science
  4. Computer Science Technical Reports
  5. The LBA Problem and its Importance in the Theory of Computing

The LBA Problem and its Importance in the Theory of Computing

File(s)
73-171.ps (829.38 KB)
73-171.pdf (2.69 MB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/6015
Collections
Computer Science Technical Reports
Hartmanis, Juris
Author
Hartmanis, Juris
Hunt, Harry B., III
Abstract

In this paper we study the classic problem of determining whether the deterministic and non-deterministic context-sensitive languages are the same or, equivalently, whether the languages accepted by deterministic and non-deterministic linearly bounded automata are the same. We show that this problem is equivalent to several other natural problems in the theory of computing and that the techniques used on the LDA problem have several other applications in complexity theory. For example, we show that there exists a hardest-tape recognizable non-deterministic context-sensitive language $L_{1}$, such that $L_{1}$ is a deterministic context-sensitive language if and only if the deterministic and non-deterministic context-sensitive languages are the same. We show furthermore, that many decision problems about sets described by regular expressions are instances of these tape-hardest recognizable context-sensitive languages. Thus, it follows that non-determinism in Turing machine computations (using at least linear tape) can not save memory over deterministic Turing machine computations if and only if the equivalence of regular expressions can be decided by a deterministic linearly bounded automaton. It also follows that the equivalence of regular expressions can be decided by a non-deterministic linearly bounded automaton if and only if the family of context-sensitive languages is closed under complementation.

Date Issued
1973-05
Publisher
Cornell University
Keywords
computer science
•
technical report
Previously Published as
http://techreports.library.cornell.edu:8081/Dienst/UI/1.0/Display/cul.cs/TR73-171
Type
technical report

Site Statistics | Help

About eCommons | Policies | Terms of use | Contact Us

copyright © 2002-2026 Cornell University Library | Privacy | Web Accessibility Assistance