Raffaella Gentilini

Energy and mean-payoff games with imperfect information

We consider two-player games with imperfect information and quantitative objective. The game is played on a weighted graph with a state space partitioned into classes of indistinguishable states, giving players partial knowledge of the state. In an energy game, the weights represent resource consumption and the objective of the game is to maintain the sum of weights always nonnegative. In a mean-payoff game, the objective is to optimize the limit-average usage of the resource. We show that the problem of determining if an energy game with imperfect information with fixed initial credit has a winning strategy is decidable, while the question of the existence of some initial credit such that the game has a winning strategy is undecidable. This undecidability result carries over to meanpayoff games with imperfect information. On the positive side, using a simple restriction on the game graph (namely, that the weights are visible), we show that these problems become EXPTIME-complete.

Quantitative Languages Defined by Functional Automata

A weighted automaton is functional if any two accepting runs on the same finite word have the same value. In this paper, we investigate functional weighted automata for four different measures: the sum, the mean, the discounted sum of weights along edges and the ratio between rewards and costs. On the positive side, we show that functionality is decidable for the four measures. Furthermore, the existential and universal threshold problems, the language inclusion problem and the equivalence problem are all decidable when the weighted automata are functional. On the negative side, we also study the quantitative extension of the realizability problem and show that it is undecidable for sum, mean and ratio. We finally show how to decide whether the language associated with a given functional automaton can be defined with a deterministic one, for sum, mean and discounted sum. The results on functionality and determinizability are expressed for the more general class of functional group automata. This allows one to formulate within the same framework new results related to discounted sum automata and known results on sum and mean automata. Ratio automata do not fit within this general scheme and different techniques are required to decide functionality.

Quantitative languages defined by functional automata

A weighted automaton is functional if any two accepting runs on the same finite word have the same value. In this paper, we investigate functional weighted automata for four different measures: the sum, the mean, the discounted sum of weights along edges and the ratio between rewards and costs. On the positive side, we show that functionality is decidable for the four measures. Furthermore, the existential and universal threshold problems, the language inclusion problem and the equivalence problem are all decidable when the weighted automata are functional. On the negative side, we also study the quantitative extension of the realizability problem and show that it is undecidable for sum, mean and ratio. We finally show how to decide whether the language associated with a given functional automaton can be defined with a deterministic one, for sum, mean and discounted sum. The results on functionality and determinizability are expressed for the more general class of functional weighted automata over groups. This allows one to formulate within the same framework new results related to discounted sum automata and known results on sum and mean automata. Ratio automata do not fit within this general scheme and specific techniques are required to decide functionality.

Rank-Based Symbolic Bisimulation (and Model Checking)

Abstract In this paper we propose an efficient symbolic algorithm for the problem of determining the maximum bisimulation on a finite structure. The starting point is an algorithm, on explicit representation of graphs, which saves both time and space exploiting the notion of rank. This notion provides a layering of the input model and allows to proceed bottom-up in the bisimulation computation. In this paper we give a procedure that allows to compute the rank of a graph working on its symbolic representation and requiring a linear number of symbolic steps. Then we embed it in a fully symbolic, rank-driven, bisimulation algorithm. Moreover, we show how the notion of rank can be employed to optimize the CTL Model Checking procedures.

Finite-Valued Weighted Automata

Any weighted automaton (WA) defines a relation from finite words to values: given an input word, its set of values is obtained as the set of values computed by each accepting run on that word. A WA is k-valued if the relation it defines has degree at most k, i.e., every set of values associated with an input word has cardinality at most k. We investigate the class of quantitative languages defined by k-valued automata, for all parameters k. We consider several measures to associate values with runs: sum, discounted-sum, and more generally values in groups. We define a general procedure which decides, given a bound k and a WA over a group, whether this automaton is k-valued. We also show that any k-valued WA over a group, under some general conditions, can be decomposed as a union of k unambiguous WA. While inclusion and equivalence are undecidable problems for arbitrary sum-automata, we show, based on this decomposition, that they are decidable for k-valued sum-automata, and k-valued discounted sum-automata over inverted integer discount factors. We finally show that the quantitative Church problem is undecidable for k-valued sum-automata, even given as finite unions of deterministic sum-automata.

A note on the approximation of mean-payoff games

We consider the problem of designing approximation schemes for the values of mean-payoff games. It was recently shown that (1) mean-payoff with rational weights scaled on [-1,1] admit additive fully-polynomial approximation schemes, and (2) mean-payoff games with positive weights admit relative fully-polynomial approximation schemes. We show that the problem of designing additive/relative approximation schemes for general mean-payoff games (i.e. with no constraint on their edge-weights) is P-time equivalent to determining their exact solution.

The Complexity of Rational Synthesis

We study the computational complexity of the cooperative and non-cooperative rational synthesis problems, as introduced by Kupferman, Vardi and co-authors. We provide tight results for most of the classical omega-regular objectives, and show how to solve those problems optimally.

Simulation Reduction as Constraint

Abstract The simulation relation is largely used in Model Checking where it allows to reduce Kripke structures, on which verification takes place, while preserving significant fragments of Temporal Logic. Our approach to the problem of simulation computation here has two aims: on the one hand we want to provide a framework in which developing algorithms competitive with the best ones in the literature, on the other hand we want to show how it is extremely natural to view such algorithms as constraint solving procedures to be easily implemented in a constraint logic programming scheme.

Rank and simulation: the well-founded case

We consider the algorithmic problem of computing the maximal simulation preorder (and quotient) on acyclic labelled graphs. The acyclicity allows to exploit an inner structure on the set of nodes, that can be processed in stages according to a set-theoretic notion of rank. This idea, previously used for bisimulation computation, on the one hand improves on the performances of the ensuing procedure and, on the other hand, gives to the solution an orderly iterative flavour making the algorithmic idea more explicit. The computational complexity achieved is good as we obtain the best performing algorithm for simulation computation on acyclic graphs, in both time and space. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Logic and Computation following peer review. The version of record – Raffaella Gentilini, Alberto Policriti, and Carla Piazza Rank and simulation: the wellfounded case Journal of Logic and Computation(2015) 25(6):1331-1349, first published on line December 3 2013– is available online at: http://m.logcom.oxfordjournals.org/content/25/6/1331.

Rational Synthesis Under Imperfect Information

In this paper, we study the rational synthesis problem for turn-based multiplayer non zero-sum games played on finite graphs for omega-regular objectives. Rationality is formalized by the concept of Nash equilibrium (NE). Contrary to previous works, we consider here the more general and more practically relevant case where players are imperfectly informed. In sharp contrast with the perfect information case, NE are not guaranteed to exist in this more general setting. This motivates the study of the NE existence problem. We show that this problem is ExpTime-C for parity objectives in the two-player case (even if both players are imperfectly informed) and undecidable for more than 2 players. We then study the rational synthesis problem and show that the problem is also ExpTime-C for two imperfectly informed players and undecidable for more than 3 players. As the rational synthesis problem considers a system (Player 0) playing against a rational environment (composed of k players), we also consider the natural case where only Player 0 is imperfectly informed about the state of the environment (and the environment is considered as perfectly informed). In this case, we show that the ExpTime-C result holds when k is arbitrary but fixed. We also analyse the complexity when k is part of the input.