Skip to main content

Random Generation and Approximate Counting of Ambiguously Described Combinatorial Structures

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
STACS 2000 (STACS 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1770))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This paper concerns the uniform random generation and the approximate counting of combinatorial structures admitting an ambiguous description. We propose a general framework to study the complexity of these problems and present some applications to specific classes of languages. In particular, we give a uniform random generation algorithm for finitely ambiguous context-free languages of the same time complexity of the best known algorithm for the unambiguous case. Other applications include a polynomial time uniform random generator and approximation scheme for the census function of (i) languages recognized in polynomial time by one-way nondeterministic auxiliary pushdown automata of polynomial ambiguity and (ii) polynomially ambiguous rational trace languages.

This work has been supported by MURST Research Program “Unconventional computational models: syntactic and combinatorial methods”.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. A. V. Aho, J. E. Hopcroft, and J. D. Ullman. The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1974.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. A. V. Aho and J. D. Ullman. The Theory of Parsing, Translation and Compiling-Vol.I: Parsing. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  3. E. Allender, D. Bruschi, and G. Pighizzini. The complexity of computing maximal word functions. Computational Complexity, 3:368–391, 1993.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. A. Avellone and M. Goldwurm. Analysis of algorithms for the recognition of rational and context-free trace languages. RAIRO Informatique théorique et Applications/Theoretical Informatics and Applications, 32(4-5-6):141–152, 1998.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. A. Bertoni, M. Goldwurm, G. Mauri, and N. Sabadini. Counting techniques for inclusion, equivalence and membership problems. In V. Diekert and G. Rozenberg, editors, The Book of Traces, chapter 5, pages 131–164. World Scientific, Singapore, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  6. A. Bertoni, M. Goldwurm, and N. Sabadini. The complexity of computing the number of strings of given length in context-free languages. Theoretical Computer Science, 86(2):325–342, 1991.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. F.-J. Brandenburg. On one-way auxiliary pushdown automata. In H. Waldschmidt H. Tzschach and H. K.-G. Walter, editors, Proceedings of the 3rd GI Conference on Theoretical Computer Science, volume 48 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 132–144, Darmstadt, FRG, March 1977. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  8. C. Choffrut and M. Goldwurm. Rational transductions and complexity of counting problems. Mathematical Systems Theory, 28(5):437–450, 1995.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. S. A. Cook. Characterizations of pushdown machines in terms of time-bounded computers. Journal of the ACM, 18(1):4–18, January 1971.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. V. Diekert and Y. Métivier. Partial commutation and traces. In G. Rozenberg and A. Salomaa, editors, Handbook on Formal Languages, volume III, pages 457–527. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  11. V. Diekert and G. Rozenberg. The Book of Traces. World Scientific, Singapore, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  12. J. Earley. An efficient context-free parsing algorithm. Communications of the ACM, 13(2):94–102, February 1970.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. P. Flajolet. Mathematical methods in the analysis of algorithms and data structures. In Egon Börger, editor, Trends in Theoretical Computer Science, chapter 6, pages 225–304. Computer Science Press, Rockville, Maryland, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  14. P. Flajolet, P. Zimmerman, and B. Van Cutsem. A calculus for the random generation of labelled combinatorial structures. Theoretical Computer Science, 132(1–2):1–35, 1994.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  15. M. Goldwurm. Random generation of words in an algebraic language in linear binary space. Information Processing Letters, 54(4):229–233, 1995.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  16. V. Gore, M. Jerrum, S. Kannan, Z. Sweedyk, and S. Mahaney. A quasi-polynomial-time algorithm for sampling words from a context-free language. Information and Computation, 134(1):59–74, 10 April 1997.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. M. A. Harrison. Introduction to Formal Language Theory. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1978.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. T. Hickey and J. Cohen. Uniform random generation of strings in a context-free language. SIAM Journal on Computing, 12(4):645–655, nov 1983.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. W. Hoeffding. Probability inequalities for sums of bounded random variables. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 58:13–30, 1963.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. J. E. Hopcroft and J. D. Ullman. Introduction to Automata Theory, Language, and Computation. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  21. M. R. Jerrum, L. G. Valiant, and V. V. Vazirani. Random generation of combinatorial structures from a uniform distribution. Theoretical Computer Science, 43(2–3):169–188, 1986.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  22. R. M. Karp, M. Luby, and N. Madras. Monte-carlo approximation algorithms for enumeration problems. Journal of Algorithms, 10:429–448, 1989.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. D. E. Knuth and A. C. Yao. The complexity of nonuniform random number generation. In J. F. Traub, editor, Algorithms and Complexity: New Directions and Recent Results, pages 357–428. Academic Press, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  24. C. Lautemann. On pushdown and small tape. In K. Wagener, editor, Dirk-Siefkes, zum 50. Geburststag (proceedings of a meeting honoring Dirk Siefkes on his fiftieth birthday), pages 42–47. Technische Universität Berlin and Universität Ausgburg, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  25. H. G. Mairson. Generating words in a context-free language uniformly at random. Information Processing Letters, 49(2):95–99, January 1994.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  26. M. Santini. Random Uniform Generation and Approximate Counting of Combinatorial Structures. PhD thesis, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Informazione — Università degli Studi di Milano, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Bertoni, A., Goldwurm, M., Santini, M. (2000). Random Generation and Approximate Counting of Ambiguously Described Combinatorial Structures. In: Reichel, H., Tison, S. (eds) STACS 2000. STACS 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1770. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46541-3_47

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46541-3_47

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67141-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46541-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics