We develop an algebraic notion of recognizability for languages of words indexed by countable linear orderings. We prove that this notion is effectively equivalent to definability in monadic second-order (MSO) logic. We also provide three logical applications. First, we establish the first known collapse result for the quantifier alternation of MSO logic over countable linear orderings. Second, we solve an open problem posed by Gurevich and Rabinovich, concerning the MSO-definability of sets of rational numbers using the reals in the background. Third, we establish the MSO-definability of the set of yields induced by an MSO-definable set of trees, confirming a conjecture posed by Bruyère, Carton, and Sénizergues.

Multiwords are words in which a single symbol can be replaced by a nonempty set of symbols. They extend the notion of partial words. A word w is certain in a multiword M if it occurs in every word that can be obtained by selecting one single symbol among the symbols provided in each position of M. Motivated by a problem on incomplete databases, we investigate a variant of the pattern matching problem which is to decide whether a word w is certain in a multiword M. We study the language CERTAIN(w) of multiwords in which w is certain. We show that this regular language is aperiodic for three large families of words. We also show its aperiodicity in the case of partial words over an alphabet with at least three symbols.

We show that the inclusion problem is decidable for rational languages of words indexed by scattered countable linear orderings. The method leans on a reduction to the decidability of the monadic second order theory of the infinite binary tree [9].

In this paper, we study the continuity of rational functions realized by Büchi finite state transducers. It has been shown by Prieur that it can be decided whether such a function is continuous. We prove here that surprisingly, it cannot be decided whether such a function f has at least one point of continuity and that its continuity set C(f) cannot be computed. In the case of a synchronous rational function, we show that its continuity set is rational and that it can be computed. Furthermore we prove that any rational ${\bf \Pi}^0_2$-subset of Σω for some alphabet Σ is the continuity set C(f) of an ω-rational synchronous function f defined on Σω.

We consider the four families of recognizable, synchronous, deterministic rational and rational subsets of a direct product of free monoids. They form a strict hierarchy and we investigate the following decision problem: given a relation in one of the families, does it belong to a smaller family? We settle the problem entirely when all monoids have a unique generator and fill some gaps in the general case. In particular, adapting a proof of Stearns, we show that it is recursively decidable whether or not a deterministic subset of an arbitrary number of free monoids is recognizable. Also we exhibit a single exponential algorithm for determining if a synchronous relation is recognizable.

This contribution extends the notions of roots and periodicity to strings of transfinite lengths. It shows that given a transfinite string, either it possesses a unique root or the set of its roots are equivalent in a strong way.

We present an algorithm for computing the prefix of an automaton. Automata considered are non-deterministic, labelled on words, and can have ε-transitions. The prefix automaton of an automaton $\mathcal{A}$ has the following characteristic properties. It has the same graph as $\mathcal{A}$. Each accepting path has the same label as in $\mathcal{A}$. For each state q, the longest common prefix of the labels of all paths going from q to an initial or final state is empty. The interest of the computation of the prefix of an automaton is that it is the first step of the minimization of sequential transducers. The algorithm that we describe has the same worst case time complexity as another algorithm due to Mohri but our algorithm allows automata that have empty labelled cycles. If we denote by P(q) the longest common prefix of labels of paths going from q to an initial or final state, it operates in time O((P+1) × |E|) where P is the maximal length of all P(q).

We define a notion of asynchronous sliding block map that can be realized by transducers labeled in A* × B*. We show that, under some conditions, it is possible to synchronize this transducer by state splitting, in order to get a transducer which defines the same sliding block map and which is labeled in A × Bk, where k is a constant integer. In the case of a transducer with a strongly connected graph, the synchronization process can be considered as an implementation of an algorithm of Frougny and Sakarovitch for synchronization of rational relations of bounded delay. The algorithm can be applied in the case where the transducer has a constant integer transmission rate on cycles and has a strongly connected graph. It keeps the locality of the input automaton of the transducer. We show that the size of the sliding window of the synchronous local map grows linearly during the process, but that the size of the transducer is intrinsically exponential. In the case of non strongly connected graphs, the algorithm of Frougny and Sakarovitch does not keep the locality of the input automaton of the transducer. We give another algorithm to solve this case without losing the good dynamic properties that guaranty the state splitting process.

The Rabin index of a rational language of infinite words given by a parity automaton with n states is computable in time O(n2c) where c is the cardinality of the alphabet. The number of values used by a parity acceptance condition is always greater than the Rabin index and conversely, the acceptance condition of a parity automaton can always be replaced by an equivalent acceptance condition whose number of used values is exactly the Rabin index. This new acceptance condition can also be computed in time O(n2c).