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The state complexities of some basic operations on regular languages. (English) Zbl 0795.68112

Summary: We consider the state complexities of some basic operations on regular languages. We show that the number of states that is sufficiently and necessary in the worst case for a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) to accept the catenation of an \(m\)-state DFA language and an \(n\)-state DFA language is exactly \(m2^ n- 2^{n-1}\), for \(m,n\geq 1\). The result of \(2^{n-1}+ 2^{n-2}\) states is obtained for the star of an \(n\)-state DFA language, \(n>1\). State complexities for other basic operations and for regular languages over a one-letter alphabet are also studied.

MSC:

68Q45 Formal languages and automata
68Q25 Analysis of algorithms and problem complexity
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