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Decidability of bisimulation equivalence for processes generating context-free languages

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PARLE Parallel Architectures and Languages Europe (PARLE 1987)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 259))

Abstract

A context-free grammar (CFG) in Greibach Normal Form coincides, in another notation, with a system of guarded recursion equations in Basic Process Algebra. Hence to each CFG a process can be assigned as solution, which has as its set of finite traces the context-free language (CFL) determined by that CFG. While the equality problem for CFL's is unsolvable, the equality problem for the processes determined by CFG's turns out to be solvable. Here equality on processes is given by a model of process graphs modulo bisimulation equivalence. The proof is given by displaying a periodic structure of the process graphs determined by CFG's. As a corollary of the periodicity a short proof of the solvability of the equivalence problem for simple context-free languages is given.

Authors partially supported by ESPRIT project 432, Meteor.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    J. C. M. Baeten & J. A. Bergstra

  2. Department of Philosophy, State University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

    J. A. Bergstra

  3. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam

    J. W. Klop

Authors
  1. J. C. M. Baeten
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  2. J. A. Bergstra
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  3. J. W. Klop
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Editor information

J. W. de Bakker A. J. Nijman P. C. Treleaven

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© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Baeten, J.C.M., Bergstra, J.A., Klop, J.W. (1987). Decidability of bisimulation equivalence for processes generating context-free languages. In: de Bakker, J.W., Nijman, A.J., Treleaven, P.C. (eds) PARLE Parallel Architectures and Languages Europe. PARLE 1987. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 259. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-17945-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-17945-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-17945-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47181-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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