Characterization and complexity results on jumping finite automata

Abstract

In a jumping finite automaton, the input head can jump to an arbitrary position within the remaining input after reading and consuming a symbol. We characterize the corresponding class of languages in terms of special shuffle expressions and survey other equivalent notions from the existing literature.

Moreover, we present several results concerning computational hardness and algorithms for parsing and other basic tasks concerning jumping finite automata.

Keywords

• Jumping finite automata
• Shuffle expressions
• Commutative languages
• Semilinear sets
• NP-hard problems
• Exponential time hypothesis