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On the Computational Complexity of P Automata

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Abstract

We characterize the classes of languages over finite alphabets which may be described by P automata, i.e., accepting P systems with communication rules only. Motivated by properties of natural computing systems, and the actual behavior of P automata, we study computational complexity classes with a certain restriction on the use of the available workspace in the course of computations and relate these to the language classes described by P automata. We prove that if the rules of the P system are applied sequentially, then the accepted language class is strictly included in the class of languages accepted by one-way Turing machines with a logarithmically bounded workspace, and if the rules are applied in the maximally parallel manner, then the class of context-sensitive languages is obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kende utca 13-17, 1111, Budapest, Hungary

    Erzsébet Csuhaj-Varjú & György Vaszil

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Oscar H. Ibarra

Authors
  1. Erzsébet Csuhaj-Varjú
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  2. Oscar H. Ibarra
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  3. György Vaszil
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Correspondence to Erzsébet Csuhaj-Varjú.

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Csuhaj-Varjú, E., Ibarra, O.H. & Vaszil, G. On the Computational Complexity of P Automata. Nat Comput 5, 109–126 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-005-4461-1

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