We study the membership problem to context-free languages (CFLs) on probabilistic words, that specify for each position a probability distribution on the letters. Our task is to compute, given a probabilistic word, what is the probability that a word drawn according to the distribution belongs to the language $L$. This problem generalizes the problem of counting how many words of length $n$ belong to $L$, or of counting how many completions of a partial word belong to $L$. We show that this problem is in polynomial time for unambiguous context-free languages (uCFLs), but can be #P-hard already for unions of two linear uCFLs. More generally, we show that the problem is in polynomial time for so-called poly-slicewise-unambiguous languages, where given a length $n$ we can tractably compute an uCFL for the words of length $n$ in the language. This class includes some inherently ambiguous languages, and implies the tractability of bounded CFLs and of languages recognized by unambiguous polynomial-time counter automata. We then introduce classes of circuits from knowledge compilation which we use for tractable counting, and show that this covers the tractability of poly-slicewise-unambiguous languages and of some CFLs that are not poly-slicewise-unambiguous. Extending these circuits with negation further allows us to show tractability for the language of primitive words, and for the language of concatenations of two palindromes. We also show that, when the target language is given as input, our problem is intractable already when the language asks whether there is a factor that matches one partial word; however, it becomes tractable when the language is given as a $k$-ambiguous automaton for any fixed $k>0$. We finally show the conditional undecidability of the meta-problem that asks, given a CFG, whether the probabilistic membership problem for that CFG is tractable or #P-hard.

Given a conjunctive query $Q$ and a database $D$, a direct access to the answers of $Q$ over $D$ is the operation of returning, given an index $k$, the $k$-th answer for some order on its answers. While this problem is $\#\mathcal{P}$-hard in general with respect to combined complexity, many conjunctive queries have an underlying structure that allows for a direct access to their answers for some lexicographical ordering that takes polylogarithmic time in the size of the database after a polynomial time precomputation. Previous work has precisely characterised the tractable classes and given fine-grained lower bounds on the precomputation time needed depending on the structure of the query. In this paper, we generalise these tractability results to the case of signed conjunctive queries, that is, conjunctive queries that may contain negative atoms. Our technique is based on a class of circuits that can represent relational data. We first show that this class supports tractable direct access after a polynomial time preprocessing. We then give bounds on the size of the circuit needed to represent the answer set of signed conjunctive queries depending on their structure. Both results combined together allow us to prove the tractability of direct access for a large class of conjunctive queries. On the one hand, we recover the known tractable classes from the literature in the case of positive conjunctive queries. On the other hand, we generalise and unify known tractability results about negative conjunctive queries -- that is, queries having only negated atoms. In particular, we show that the class of $β$-acyclic negative conjunctive queries and the class of bounded nest set width negative conjunctive queries admit tractable direct access.

We present an elementary branch and bound algorithm with a simple analysis of why it achieves worstcase optimality for join queries on classes of databases defined respectively by cardinality or acyclic degree constraints. We then show that if one is given a reasonable way for recursively estimating upper bounds on the number of answers of the join queries, our algorithm can be turned into algorithm for uniformly sampling answers with expected running time $O(UP/OUT)$ where $UP$ is the upper bound, $OUT$ is the actual number of answers and $O(\cdot)$ ignores polylogarithmic factors. Our approach recovers recent results on worstcase optimal join algorithm and sampling in a modular, clean and elementary way.

Data integrity is ensured by expressing constraints it should satisfy. One can also view constraints as data properties and take advantage of them for several tasks such as reasoning about data or accelerating query processing. In the context of graph databases, simple constraints can be expressed by means of path constraints while simple queries are modeled as regular path queries (RPQs). In this paper, we investigate the containment of RPQs under path constraints. We focus on word constraints that can be viewed as tuple-generating dependencies (TGDs) of the form ∀x_1,x_2, ∃y⁻, a_1(x_1,y_1) ∧ ... ∧ a_i(y_{i-1},y_i) ∧ ... ∧ a_n(y_{n-1},x_2) ⟶ ∃z⁻, b_1(x_1,z_1) ∧ ... ∧ b_i(z_{i-1},z_i) ∧ ... ∧ b_m(z_{m-1},x_2). Such a constraint means that whenever two nodes in a graph are connected by a path labeled a_1 … a_n, there is also a path labeled b_1 … b_m that connects them. Rewrite systems offer an abstract view of these TGDs: the rewrite rule a_1 … a_n → b_1 … b_m represents the previous constraint. A set of constraints 𝒞 is then represented by a rewrite system R and, when dealing with possibly infinite databases, a path query p is contained in a path query q under the constraints 𝒞 iff p rewrites to q with R. Contrary to what has been claimed in the literature we show that, when restricting to finite databases only, there are cases where a path query p is contained in a path query q under the constraints 𝒞 while p does not rewrite to q with R. More generally, we study the finite controllability of the containment of RPQs under word constraints, that is when this containment problem on unrestricted databases does coincide with the finite case. We give an exact characterisation of the cases where this equivalence holds. We then deduce the undecidability of the containment problem in the finite case even when RPQs are restricted to word queries. We prove several properties related to finite controllability, and in particular that it is undecidable. We also exhibit some classes of word constraints that ensure the finite controllability and the decidability of the containment problem.

We introduce the notion of high-order deterministic top-down tree transducers (HODT) whose outputs correspond to single-typed lambda-calculus formulas. These transducers are natural generalizations of known models of top-tree transducers such as: Deterministic Top-Down Tree Transducers, Macro Tree Transducers, Streaming Tree Transducers... We focus on the linear restriction of high order tree transducers with look-ahead (HODTR_lin), and prove this corresponds to tree to tree functional transformations defined by Monadic Second Order (MSO) logic. We give a specialized procedure for the composition of those transducers that uses a flow analysis based on coherence spaces and allows us to preserve the linearity of transducers. This procedure has a better complexity than classical algorithms for composition of other equivalent tree transducers, but raises the order of transducers. However, we also indicate that the order of a HODTR_lin can always be bounded by 3, and give a procedure that reduces the order of a HODTR_lin to 3. As those resulting HODTR_lin can then be transformed into other equivalent models, this gives an important insight on composition algorithm for other classes of transducers. Finally, we prove that those results partially translate to the case of almost linear HODTR: the class corresponds to the class of tree transformations performed by MSO with unfolding (not closed by composition), and provide a mechanism to reduce the order to 3 in this case.

Karp and Miller's algorithm is a well-known decision procedure that solves the termination and boundedness problems for vector addition systems with states (VASS), or equivalently Petri nets. This procedure was later extended to a general class of models, well-structured transition systems, and, more recently, to pushdown VASS. In this paper, we extend pushdown VASS to higher-order pushdown VASS (called HOPVASS), and we investigate whether an approach à la Karp and Miller can still be used to solve termination and boundedness. We provide a decidable characterisation of runs that can be iterated arbitrarily many times, which is the main ingredient of Karp and Miller's approach. However, the resulting Karp and Miller procedure only gives a semi-algorithm for HOPVASS. In fact, we show that coverability, termination and boundedness are all undecidable for HOPVASS, even in the restricted subcase of one counter and an order 2 stack. On the bright side, we prove that this semi-algorithm is in fact an algorithm for higher-order pushdown automata.

We prove the following decomposition theorem: every 1-register streaming string transducer that associates a uniformly bounded number of outputs with each input can be effectively decomposed as a finite union of functional 1-register streaming string transducers. This theorem relies on a combinatorial result by Kortelainen concerning word equations with iterated factors. Our result implies the decidability of the equivalence problem for the considered class of transducers. This can be seen as a first step towards proving a more general decomposition theorem for streaming string transducers with multiple registers.

A non-deterministic recursion scheme recognizes a language of finite trees. This very expressive model can simulate, among others, higher-order pushdown automata with collapse. We show decidability of the diagonal problem for schemes. This result has several interesting consequences. In particular, it gives an algorithm that computes the downward closure of languages of words recognized by schemes. In turn, this has immediate application to separability problems and reachability analysis of concurrent systems.

Simply typed λ-calculus with fixpoint combinators, λY-calculus, offers an interesting method for approximating program semantics. The Böhm tree of a λY-term represents the meaning of the program up to the meaning of built-in constants. It is much easier to reason about properties of such trees than properties of interpreted programs. Moreover, some interesting properties of programs are already expressible on the level of these trees. Collapsible pushdown automata (CPDA) give another way of generating the same class of trees as λY-terms. We clarify the relationship between the two models. In particular, we present two relatively simple translations from λY-terms to CPDA using Krivine machines as an intermediate step. The latter are general machines for describing computation of the weak head normal form in the λ-calculus. They provide the notions of closure and environment that facilitate reasoning about computation.

We consider simply typed lambda-calculus with fixpoints as a non-interpreted functional programming language: the result of the execution of a program is its normal form that can be seen as a potentially infinite tree of calls to built-in operations. Properties of such trees are properties of executions of programs and monadic second-order logic (MSOL) is well suited to express them. For a given MSOL property we show how to construct a finitary model recognizing it. In other words, the value of a lambda-term in the model determines if the tree that is the result of the execution of the term satisfies the property. The finiteness of the construction has as consequences many known results about the verification of higher-order programs in this framework.

We define a new class of pushdown systems where the pushdown is a tree instead of a word. We allow a limited form of lookahead on the pushdown conforming to a certain ordering restriction, and we show that the resulting class enjoys a decidable reachability problem. This follows from a preservation of recognizability result for the backward reachability relation of such systems. As an application, we show that our simple model can encode several formalisms generalizing pushdown systems, such as ordered multi-pushdown systems, annotated higher-order pushdown systems, the Krivine machine, and ordered annotated multi-pushdown systems. In each case, our procedure yields tight complexity.

We consider simply-typed lambda calculus with fixpoint operators. Evaluation of a term gives as a result the Böhm tree of the term. We show that evaluation is compatible with monadic second-order logic (MSOL). This means that for a fixed finite vocabulary of terms, the MSOL properties of Böhm trees of terms are effectively MSOL properties of terms themselves. Theorems of this kind have been known for some graph operations: unfolding, and Muchnik iteration. Similarly to those results, our main theorem has diverse applications. It can be used to show decidability results, to construct classes of graphs with decidable MSOL theory, or to obtain MSOL formulas expressing behavioral properties of terms. Another application is decidability of a control-flow synthesis problem.

We introduce a new class of automata, which we call vector addition tree automata. These automata are a natural generalization of vector addition systems with states, which are themselves equivalent to Petri-nets. Then, we prove that the decidability of provability in multiplicative exponential linear logic (which is an open problem) is equivalent to the decidability of the reachability relation for vector addition tree automata. This result generalizes the well-known connection existing between Petri nets and the !-horn fragment of multiplicative exponential linear logic.