We consider a variant of VASS extended with integer counters, denoted VASS+ℤ. These are automata equipped with ℕ- and ℤ-counters; the ℕ-counters are required to remain nonnegative and the ℤ-counters do not have this restriction. We study the complexity of the reachability problem for VASS+ℤ when the number of ℕ-counters is fixed. We show that reachability is NP-complete in 1-VASS+ℤ (i.e. when there is only one ℕ-counter) regardless of unary or binary encoding. For d ≥ 2, using a KLMST-based algorithm, we prove that reachability in d-VASS+ℤ lies in the complexity class ℱ_{d+2}. Our upper bound improves on the naively obtained Ackermannian complexity by simulating the ℤ-counters with ℕ-counters. To complement our upper bounds, we show that extending VASS with integer counters significantly lowers the number of ℕ-counters needed to exhibit hardness. We prove that reachability in unary 2-VASS+ℤ is PSpace-hard; without ℤ-counters this lower bound is only known in dimension 5. We also prove that reachability in unary 3-VASS+ℤ is Tower-hard. Without ℤ-counters, reachability in 3-VASS has elementary complexity and Tower-hardness is only known in dimension 8.

The reachability problem for Vector Addition Systems (VAS) is a central decision problem in the theory of infinite-state systems, first solved by Kosaraju and Mayr in the 1980s. An alternative, conceptually simpler approach introduced by Leroux shows that non-reachability is always witnessed by semilinear inductive invariants, yielding a decision procedure by combining an enumeration of runs with a search for such invariants. However, the construction of these invariants relies on a back-and-forth scheme that depends symmetrically on the source and the target. As a result, the invariants are not guaranteed to reflect the structural properties of the VAS, and the construction is difficult to extend to asymmetric models such as Branching VAS. We introduce a new forward-only construction of semilinear inductive invariants for VAS. Our method builds invariants from the source configuration alone and avoids the need for backward reasoning. This yields invariants that are more canonical and better aligned with the structure of the system. In particular, our method produces periodic inductive invariants for periodic VAS. Beyond its intrinsic interest, our approach provides a step toward extending invariant-based techniques to Branching VAS.

Abstract We show that the EXPSPACE-hardness result for structural liveness of Petri nets [Jančar and Purser, 2019] holds even for a simple subclass of conservative nets. As the main result we then show that for structurally live conservative nets the values of the least live markings are at most double exponential in the size of the nets, which entails the EXPSPACE-completeness of structural liveness for conservative Petri nets; the complexity of the general case remains unclear. As a proof ingredient with a potential of wider applicability, we present an extension of the known results bounding the smallest integer solutions of boolean combinations of linear (in)equations and divisibility constraints.

International audience

We study the reachability problem for one-counter automata in which transitions can carry disequality tests. A disequality test is a guard that prohibits a specified counter value. This reachability problem has been known to be NP-hard and in PSPACE, and characterising its computational complexity has been left as a challenging open question by Almagor, Cohen, Pérez, Shirmohammadi, and Worrell (2020). We reduce the complexity gap, placing the problem into the second level of the polynomial hierarchy, namely into the class $\mathsf{coNP}^{\mathsf{NP}}$. In the presence of both equality and disequality tests, our upper bound is at the third level, $\mathsf{P}^{\mathsf{NP}^{\mathsf{NP}}}$. To prove this result, we show that non-reachability can be witnessed by a pair of invariants (forward and backward). These invariants are almost inductive. They aim to over-approximate only a "core" of the reachability set instead of the entire set. The invariants are also leaky: it is possible to escape the set. We complement this with separate checks as the leaks can only occur in a controlled way.

Abstract Vector addition systems (VAS for short), or equivalently vector addition systems with states, or Petri nets are a long established model of concurrency with extensive applications in modeling and analysis of hardware, software and database systems, as well as chemical, biological and business processes. The central algorithmic problem is reachability: whether from a given initial configuration there exists a sequence of valid execution steps that reaches a given final configuration. The complexity of the problem has remained unsettled since the 1960 s, and was recently proved to be Ackermannian-complete. In 2009, we proved that the reachability problem can be decided with a simple algorithm by observing that negative instances of the reachability problem can be witnessed by partitioning the set configurations into semilinear sets called complete separators . Since we can decide in elementary time if a pair of semilinear sets denotes a complete separator, the size of such a witness is Ackermannian in the worst case. In this paper, we show how recent results about the reachability problem can be combined to derive a matching upper-bound, i.e. for every negative instance of the reachability problem, we can effectively compute in Ackermannian time a complete separator witnessing that property.

Abstract Petri nets constitute a well-studied model to verify and study concurrent systems, among others, and computing the coverability set is one of the most fundamental problems about Petri nets. Using the proof assistant Coq, we certified the correctness and termination of the MinCov algorithm by Finkel, Haddad, and Khmelnitsky (FOSSACS 2020). This algorithm is the most recent algorithm in the literature that computes the minimal basis of the coverability set, a problem known to be prone to subtle bugs. Apart from the intrinsic interest of a computer-checked proof, our certification provides new insights on the MinCov algorithm. In particular, we introduce as an intermediate algorithm a small-step variant of MinCov of independent interest.

A set of configurations $H$ is a home-space for a set of configurations $X$ of aPetri net if every configuration reachable from (any configuration in) $X$ can reach (some configuration in) $H$. The semilinear home-space problem for Petri nets asks, given a Petri net and semilinear sets of configurations $X$, $H$, if $H$ is a home-space for $X$. In 1989, David de Frutos Escrig and Colette Johnen proved that the problem is decidable when $X$ is a singleton and $H$ is a finite union of linear sets with the same periods. In this paper, we show that the general (semilinear) problem is decidable. This result is obtained by proving a duality between the reachability problem and the non-home-space problem. In particular, we prove that for any Petri net and any semilinear set of configurations $H$ we can effectively compute a semilinear set $C$ of configurations, called a non-reachability core for $H$, such that for every set $X$ the set $H$ is not a home-space for $X$ if, and only if, $C$ is reachable from $X$. We show that the established relation to the reachability problem yields the Ackermann-completeness of the (semilinear) home-space problem. For this we also show that, given a Petri net with an initial marking, the set of minimal reachable markings can be constructed in Ackermannian time.

A set of configurations H is a home-space for a set of configurations X of a Petri net if every configuration reachable from (any configuration in) X can reach (some configuration in) H. The semilinear home-space problem for Petri nets asks, given a Petri net and semilinear sets of configurations X, H, if H is a home-space for X. In 1989, David de Frutos Escrig and Colette Johnen proved that the problem is decidable when X is a singleton and H is a finite union of linear sets with the same periods. In this paper, we show that the general (semilinear) problem is decidable. This result is obtained by proving a duality between the reachability problem and the non-home-space problem. In particular, we prove that for any Petri net and any linear set of configurations L we can effectively compute a semilinear set C of configurations, called a non-reachability core for L, such that for every set X the set L is not a home-space for X if, and only if, C is reachable from X. We show that the established relation to the reachability problem yields the Ackermann-completeness of the (semilinear) home-space problem. For this we also show that, given a Petri net with an initial marking, the set of minimal reachable markings can be constructed in Ackermannian time.

International audience

Abstract Population protocols are a model of computation in which an arbitrary number of indistinguishable finite-state agents interact in pairs. The goal of the agents is to decide by stable consensus whether their initial global configuration satisfies a given property, specified as a predicate on the set of configurations. The state complexity of a predicate is the number of states of a smallest protocol that computes it. Previous work by Blondin et al. has shown that the counting predicates $$x \ge \eta $$ x ≥ η have state complexity $$\mathcal {O}(\log \eta )$$ O ( log η ) for leaderless protocols and $$\mathcal {O}(\log \log \eta )$$ O ( log log η ) for protocols with leaders. We obtain the first non-trivial lower bounds: the state complexity of $$x \ge \eta $$ x ≥ η is $$\Omega (\log \log \eta )$$ Ω ( log log η ) for leaderless protocols, and the inverse of a non-elementary function for protocols with leaders.

Population protocols are a model of computation in which an arbitrary number of anonymous finite-memory agents are interacting in order to decide by stable consensus a predicate. In this paper, we focus on the counting predicates that asks, given an initial configuration, whether the number of agents in some initial state i is at least n. In 2018, Blondin, Esparza, and Jaax shown that with a fix number of leaders, there exists infinitely many n for which the counting predicate is stably computable by a protocol with at most O(log log(n)) states. We provide in this paper a matching lower-bound (up to a square root) that improves the inverse-Ackermannian lower-bound presented at PODC in 2021.

We present a way to lift up the Tower complexity lower bound of the reachability problem for Petri nets to match the Ackermannian upper bound closing a long standing open problem. We also prove that the reachability problem in dimension 17 is not elementary.

The reachability problem is a central decision problem in verification of vector addition systems with states (VASS). In spite of recent progress, the complexity of the reachability problem remains unsettled, and it is closely related to the lengths of shortest VASS runs that witness reachability. We obtain three main results for VASS of fixed dimension. For the first two, we assume that the integers in the input are given in unary, and that the control graph of the given VASS is flat (i.e., without nested cycles). We obtain a family of VASS in dimension 3 whose shortest runs are exponential, and we show that the reachability problem is NP-hard in dimension 7. These results resolve negatively questions that had been posed by the works of Blondin et al. in LICS 2015 and Englert et al. in LICS 2016, and contribute a first construction that distinguishes 3-dimensional flat VASS from 2-dimensional ones. Our third result, by means of a novel family of products of integer fractions, shows that 4-dimensional VASS can have doubly exponentially long shortest runs. The smallest dimension for which this was previously known is 14.

Vector addition system with states is an ubiquitous model of computation with extensive applications in computer science. The reachability problem for vector addition systems is central since many other problems reduce to that question. The problem is decidable and it was recently proved that the dimension of the vector addition system is an important parameter of the complexity. In fixed dimensions larger than two, the complexity is not known (with huge complexity gaps). In dimension two, the reachability problem was shown to be PSPACE-complete by Blondin et al. in 2015. We consider an extension of this model, called 2-TVASS, where the first counter can be tested for zero. This model naturally extends the classical model of one counter automata (OCA). We show that reachability is still solvable in polynomial space for 2-TVASS. As in the work Blondin et al., our approach relies on the existence of small reachability certificates obtained by concatenating polynomially many cycles.

The termination complexity of a given VASS is a function L assigning to every n the length of the longest non-terminating computation initiated in a configuration with all counters bounded by n. We show that for every VASS with demonic nondeterminism and every fixed k, the problem whether L ϵ Gk, where Gk is the k-th level in the Grzegorczyk hierarchy, is decidable in polynomial time. Furthermore, we show that if L ϵ G, then L grows at least as fast as the generator Fk+1 of Gk+1. Hence, for every terminating VASS, the growth of L can be reasonably characterized by the least k such that L ϵ Gk.

Vector addition systems with states, or equivalently vector addition systems, or Petri nets are a long established model of concurrency with extensive applications in modelling and analysis of hardware, software and database systems, as well as chemical, biological and business processes. The central algorithmic problem is reachability: whether from a given initial configuration there exists a sequence of valid execution steps that reaches a given final configuration. The complexity of the problem has remained unsettled since the 1960s, and it is one of the most prominent open questions in the theory of computation.

Petri nets are a classical model of concurrency widely used and studied in formal verification with many applications in modeling and analyzing hardware and software, data bases, and reactive systems. The reachability problem is central since many other problems reduce to reachability questions. In 2011, we proved that a variant of the reachability problem, called the reversible reachability problem is exponential-space complete. Recently, this problem found several unexpected applications in particular in the theory of population protocols. In this paper we revisit the reversible reachability problem in order to prove that the minimal distance in the reachability graph of two mutually reachable configurations is linear with respect to the Euclidean distance between those two configurations.

The reachability problem in vector addition systems is a central question, not only for the static verification of these systems, but also for many inter-reducible decision problems occurring in various fields. The currently best known upper bound on this problem is not primitive-recursive, even when considering systems of fixed dimension. We provide significant refinements to the classical decomposition algorithm of Mayr, Kosaraju, and Lambert and to its termination proof, which yield an ACKERMANN upper bound in the general case, and primitive-recursive upper bounds in fixed dimension. While this does not match the currently best known TOWER lower bound for reachability, it is optimal for related problems.

Petri nets, also known as vector addition systems, are a long established model of concurrency with extensive applications in modelling and analysis of hardware, software and database systems, as well as chemical, biological and business processes. The central algorithmic problem for Petri nets is reachability: whether from the given initial configuration there exists a sequence of valid execution steps that reaches the given final configuration. The complexity of the problem has remained unsettled since the 1960s, and it is one of the most prominent open questions in the theory of verification. Decidability was proved by Mayr in his seminal STOC 1981 work, and the currently best published upper bound is non-primitive recursive Ackermannian of Leroux and Schmitz from LICS 2019. We establish a non-elementary lower bound, i.e. that the reachability problem needs a tower of exponentials of time and space. Until this work, the best lower bound has been exponential space, due to Lipton in 1976. The new lower bound is a major breakthrough for several reasons. Firstly, it shows that the reachability problem is much harder than the coverability (i.e., state reachability) problem, which is also ubiquitous but has been known to be complete for exponential space since the late 1970s. Secondly, it implies that a plethora of problems from formal languages, logic, concurrent systems, process calculi and other areas, that are known to admit reductions from the Petri nets reachability problem, are also not elementary. Thirdly, it makes obsolete the currently best lower bounds for the reachability problems for two key extensions of Petri nets: with branching and with a pushdown stack.

The boundedness problem is a well-known exponential-space complete problem for vector addition systems with states (or Petri nets); it asks if the reachability set (for a given initial configuration) is finite. Here we consider a dual problem, the co-finiteness problem that asks if the complement o f the reachability set is finite; by restricting the question we get the co-emptiness (or universality) problem that asks if all configurations are reachable. We show that both the co-finiteness problem and the co-emptiness problem are exponential-space complete. While the lower bounds are obtained by a straightforward reduction from coverability, getting the upper bounds is more involved; in particular we use the bounds derived for reversible reachability by Leroux (2013). The studied problems were motivated by a result for structural liveness of Petri nets; this problem was shown decidable by Jančar (2017), without clarifying its complexity. The structural liveness problem is tightly related to a generalization of the co-emptiness problem, where the sets of initial configurations are (possibly infinite) downward closed sets instead of just singletons. We formulate the problems even more generally, for semilinear sets of initial configurations; in this case we show that the co-emptiness problem is decidable (without giving an upper complexity bound), and we formulate a conjecture under which the co-finiteness problem is also decidable.

International audience

We prove that the reachability relation of two-counter machines with one zero-test and one reset is Presburger-definable and effectively computable. Our proof is based on the introduction of two classes of Presburger-definable relations effectively stable by transitive closure. This approach generalizes and simplifies the existing different proofs and it solves an open problem introduced by Finkel and Sutre in 2000.

The reachability problem for vector addition systems is one of the most difficult and central problems in theoretical computer science. The problem is known to be decidable, but despite intense investigation during the last four decades, the exact complexity is still open. For some sub-classes, the complexity of the reachability problem is known. Structurally bounded vector addition systems, the class of vector addition systems with finite reachability sets from any initial configuration, is one of those classes. In fact, the reachability problem was shown to be polynomial-space complete for that class by Praveen and Lodaya in 2008. Surprisingly, extending this property to vector addition systems with states is open. In fact, there exist vector addition systems with states that are structurally bounded but with Ackermannian large sets of reachable configurations. It follows that the reachability problem for that class is between exponential space and Ackermannian. In this paper we introduce the class of polynomial vector addition systems with states, defined as the class of vector addition systems with states with size of reachable configurations bounded polynomially in the size of the initial ones. We prove that the reachability problem for polynomial vector addition systems is exponential-space complete. Additionally, we show that we can decide in polynomial time if a vector addition system with states is polynomial. This characterization introduces the notion of iteration scheme with potential applications to the reachability problem for general vector addition systems.

Whether the reachability problem for branching vector addition systems, or equivalently the provability problem for multiplicative exponential linear logic, is decidable has been a long-standing open question. The one-dimensional case is a generalisation of the extensively studied one-counter nets, and it was recently established polynomial-time complete provided counter updates are given in unary. Our main contribution is to determine the complexity when the encoding is binary: polynomial-space complete.

Data vectors generalise finite multisets: they are finitely supported functions into a commutative monoid. We study the question whether a given data vector can be expressed as a finite sum of others, only assuming that 1) the domain is countable and 2) the given set of base vectors is finite up to permutations of the domain. Based on a succinct representation of the involved permutations as integer linear constraints, we derive that positive instances can be witnessed in a bounded subset of the domain. For data vectors over a group we moreover study when a data vector is reversible, that is, if its inverse is expressible using only nonnegative coefficients. We show that if all base vectors are reversible then the expressibility problem reduces to checking membership in finitely generated subgroups. Moreover, checking reversibility also reduces to such membership tests. These questions naturally appear in the analysis of counter machines extended with unordered data: namely, for data vectors over (ℤd, +) expressibility directly corresponds to checking state equations for Coloured Petri nets where tokens can only be tested for equality. We derive that in this case, expressibility is in NP, and in P for reversible instances. These upper bounds are tight: they match the lower bounds for standard integer vectors (over singleton domains).

Driven by the concurrency revolution, the study of the coverability problem for Petri nets has regained a lot of interest in the recent years. A promising approach, which was presented in two papers last year, leverages a downward-closed forward invariant to accelerate the classical backward coverability analysis for Petri nets. In this paper, we propose a generalization of this approach to the class of well-structured transition systems (WSTSs), which contains Petri nets. We then apply this generalized approach to lossy channel systems (LCSs), a well-known subclass of WSTSs. We propose three downward-closed forward invariants for LCSs. One of them counts the number of messages in each channel, and the other two keep track of the order of messages. An experimental evaluation demonstrates the benefits of our approach.

Population protocols are a model for parameterized systems in which a set of identical, anonymous, finite-state processes interact pairwise through rendezvous synchronization. In each step, the pair of interacting processes is chosen by a random scheduler. Angluin et al. (PODC 2004) studied population protocols as a distributed computation model. They characterized the computational power in the limit (semi-linear predicates) of a subclass of protocols (the well-specified ones). However, the modeling power of protocols go beyond computation of semi-linear predicates and they can be used to study a wide range of distributed protocols, such as asynchronous leader election or consensus, stochastic evolutionary processes, or chemical reaction networks. Correspondingly, one is interested in checking specifications on these protocols that go beyond the well-specified computation of predicates. In this paper, we characterize the decidability frontier for the model checking problem for population protocols against probabilistic linear-time specifications. We show that the model checking problem is decidable for qualitative objectives, but as hard as the reachability problem for Petri nets - a well-known hard problem without known elementary algorithms. On the other hand, model checking is undecidable for quantitative properties.

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and extended versions of the papers selected from the 6th of the Reachability Problems Workshop hosted by the University of Bordeaux, France from 17 till

Population protocols [Angluin et al., PODC, 2004] are a formal model of sensor networks consisting of identical mobile devices. Two devices can interact and thereby change their states. Computations are infinite sequences of interactions satisfying a strong fairness constraint. A population protocol is well-specified if for every initial configuration C of devices, and every computation starting at C, all devices eventually agree on a consensus value depending only on C. If a protocol is well-specified, then it is said to compute the predicate that assigns to each initial configuration its consensus value. While the predicates computable by well-specified protocols have been extensively studied, the two basic verification problems remain open: is a given protocol well-specified? Does a protocol compute a given predicate? We prove that both problems are decidable. Our results also prove decidability of a natural question about home spaces of Petri nets.

More than 30 years after their inception, the decidability proofs for reach ability in vector addition systems (VAS) still retain much of their mystery. These proofs rely crucially on a decomposition of runs successively refined by Mayr, Kosaraju, and Lambert, which appears rather magical, and for which no complexity upper bound is known. We first offer a justification for this decomposition technique, by showing that it computes the ideal decomposition of the set of runs, using the natural embedding relation between runs as well quasi ordering. In a second part, we apply recent results on the complexity of termination thanks to well quasi orders and well orders to obtain a cubic Ackermann upper bound for the decomposition algorithms, thus providing the first known upper bounds for general VAS reach ability.

We introduce a logic for specifying trace properties of vector addition systems (VAS). This logic can express linear relations among pumping segments occurring in a trace. Given a VAS and a formula in the logic, we investigate the question whether the VAS contains a trace satisfying the formula. Our main contribution is an exponential space upper bound for this problem. The proof is based on a small model property for the logic. Compared to similar logics that are solvable in exponential space, a distinguishing feature of our logic is its ability to express non-context-freeness of the trace language of a VAS. This allows us to show that the context-freeness problem for VAS, whose complexity was not established so far, is ExpSpace -complete. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The reachability problem for Vector Addition Systems (VAS) is a central problem of net theory. The problem is known to be decidable by inductive invariants definable in the Presburger arithmetic. When the reachability set is definable in the Presburger arithmetic, the existence of such an inductive invariant is immediate. However, in this case, the computation of a Presburger formula denoting the reachability set is an open problem. In this paper we close this problem by proving that if the reachability set of a VAS is definable in the Presburger arithmetic, then the VAS is flatable, i.e. its reachability set can be obtained by runs labeled by words in a bounded language. As a direct consequence, classical algorithms based on acceleration techniques effectively compute a formula in the Presburger arithmetic denoting the reachability set.

Petri nets, or equivalently vector addition systems (VAS), are widely recognized as a central model for concurrent systems. Many interesting properties are decidable for this class, such as boundedness, reachability, regularity, as well as context-freeness, which is the focus of this paper. The context-freeness problem asks whether the trace language of a given VAS is context-free. This problem was shown to be decidable by Schwer in 1992, but the proof is very complex and intricate. The resulting decision procedure relies on five technical conditions over a customized coverability graph. These five conditions are shown to be necessary, but the proof that they are sufficient is only sketched. In this paper, we revisit the context-freeness problem for VAS, and give a simpler proof of decidability. Our approach is based on witnesses of non-context-freeness, that are bounded regular languages satisfying a nesting condition. As a corollary, we obtain that the trace language of a VAS is context-free if, and only if, it has a context-free intersection with every bounded regular language.

The reachability problem for Vector Addition Systems (VASs) is a central problem of net theory. The general problem is known decidable by algorithms exclusively based on the classical Kosaraju-Lambert-Mayr-Sacerdote-Tenney decomposition (KLMTS decomposition). Recently from this decomposition, we deduced that a final configuration is not reachable from an initial one if and only if there exists a Presburger inductive invariant that contains the initial configuration but not the final one. Since we can decide if a Preburger formula denotes an inductive invariant, we deduce from this result that there exist checkable certificates of non-reachability in the Presburger arithmetic. In particular, there exists a simple algorithm for deciding the general VAS reachability problem based on two semi-algorithms. A first one that tries to prove the reachability by enumerating finite sequences of actions and a second one that tries to prove the non-reachability by enumerating Presburger formulas. In this paper we provide the first proof of the VAS reachability problem that is not based on the KLMST decomposition. The proof is based on the notion of production relations inspired from Hauschildt that directly provides the existence of Presburger inductive invariants.

Reachability and boundedness problems have been shown decidable for Vector Addition Systems with one zero-test. Surprisingly, place-boundedness remained open. We provide here a variation of the Karp-Miller algorithm to compute a basis of the downward closure of the reachability set which allows to decide place-boundedness. This forward algorithm is able to pass the zero-tests thanks to a finer cover, hybrid between the reachability and cover sets, reclaiming accuracy on one component. We show that this filtered cover is still recursive, but that equality of two such filtered covers, even for usual Vector Addition Systems (with no zero-test), is undecidable.

The reachability problem for Vector Addition Systems (VASs) is a central problem of net theory. The general problem is known decidable by algorithms exclusively based on the classical Kosaraju-Lambert-Mayr-Sacerdote-Tenney decomposition. This decomposition is used in this paper to prove that the Parikh images of languages accepted by VASs are semi-pseudo-linear; a class that extends the semi-linear sets, a.k.a. the sets definable in the Presburger arithmetic. We provide an application of this result; we prove that a final configuration is not reachable from an initial one if and only if there exists a Presburger formula denoting a forward inductive invariant that contains the initial configuration but not the final one. Since we can decide if a Preburger formula denotes an inductive invariant, we deduce that there exist checkable certificates of non-reachability. In particular, there exists a simple algorithm for deciding the general VAS reachability problem based on two semi-algorithms. A first one that tries to prove the reachability by enumerating finite sequences of actions and a second one that tries to prove the non-reachability by enumerating Presburger formulas.

We tackle the issue of representing infinite sets of real- valued vectors. This paper introduces an operator for combining integer and real sets. Using this operator, we decompose three well-known logics extending Presburger with reals. Our decomposition splits a logic into two parts : one integer, and one decimal (i.e. on the interval [0,1]). We also give a basis for an implementation of our representation.

Number decision diagrams (NDD) are the automata-based symbolic representation for manipulating sets of integer vectors encoded as strings of digit vectors (least or most significant digit first). Since 1969 (A. Cobham, 1969, A. Semenov, 1977), we know that any Presburger-definable set (M. Presburger, 1929) (a set of integer vectors satisfying a formula in the first-order additive theory of the integers) can be represented by a NDD, and efficient algorithm for manipulating these sets have been recently developed (P. Wolper et al., 2000, A. Boudet et al., 1996). However, the problem of deciding if a NDD represents such a set, is a well-known hard problem first solved by Muchnik in 1991 with a quadruply-exponential time algorithm. In this paper, we show how to determine in polynomial time whether a NDD represents a Presburger-definable set, and we provide in this positive case a polynomial time algorithm that constructs from the NDD a Presburger-formula that defines the same set.