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Vector addition system reachability problem: a short self-contained proof

Published:26 January 2011Publication History
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Abstract

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.

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        • Published in

          cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices
          ACM SIGPLAN Notices  Volume 46, Issue 1
          POPL '11
          January 2011
          624 pages
          ISSN:0362-1340
          EISSN:1558-1160
          DOI:10.1145/1925844
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            POPL '11: Proceedings of the 38th annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages
            January 2011
            652 pages
            ISBN:9781450304900
            DOI:10.1145/1926385

          Copyright © 2011 ACM

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          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 26 January 2011

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