Unit-I

Basic Foundations

Prepared By:
Ghanashyam BK

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 Contents
 Review of Set Theory, Logic, Functions, Proofs
 Automata, Computability and Complexity:
 Complexity Theory, Computability Theory, Automata Theory
 Basic concepts of Automata Theory:
 Alphabets,
 Power of Alphabet,
 Kleen Closure Alphabet,
 Positive Closure of Alphabet,
 Strings,
 Empty String,
 Substring of a string,
 Concatenation of strings,
 Languages,
 Empty Language

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 Review of Set Theory
Sets
a collection of well defined objects.
the element of a set has common properties.
e.g. all the student who enroll for a course “theory of
computation” make up a set.
Examples
The set of even positive integer less than 20 can be
expressed by
 E = {2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18}
Or
 E = {x|x is even and 0<x<20}

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 Review of Set Theory
Finite and Infinite Sets
A set is finite if it contains finite number of elements.
And, infinite otherwise
The empty set has no element and is denoted by ɸ
Cardinality of set
It is a number of element in a set.
The cardinality of set E is
|E|=9
Subset
A set A is subset of a set B if each element of A is also
element of B and is denoted by
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 Review of Set Theory
Set operations
Union:
The union of two set has elements, the elements of one
of the two sets and possibly both.
Union is denoted by +
Intersection
The intersection of two sets is the collection of all
elements of the two sets which are common
is denoted by .

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 Review of Set Theory
Set operations
Differences
The difference of two sets A and B.
denoted by A-B
e set of all elements that are in the set A but not in the set
B.

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 Review of Set Theory
Sequences and Tuples
sequence of objects is a list of objects in some order.
For example, the sequence 7,4,17 would be written as
(4,7,17)
In set the order does not matter but in sequence it does.
repetition is not permitted in a set but is allowed in a
sequence
Relations
A binary relation on two sets A and B is a subset of A×B
for example, if A={1,3,9}, B={x,y}, then {(1,x),(3,y),
(9,x)} is a binary relation on 2- sets.

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 Logic
Computers represent information using bits
A bit is a symbol with two possible values, 0 and 1.
By convention, 1 represents T (true) and 0 represents F
(false)
A variable is called a Boolean variable if its value is
either true or false.
Bit operation – replace true by 1 and false by 0 in
logical operations.

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 Prepositional Logic
A proposition is a collection of declarative statements
that has either a truth value "true” or a truth value
"false“
consists of propositional variables and connectives.
denote the propositional variables by capital letters (A,
B, etc).
connectives connect the propositional variables.
examples of Propositions are given below:
"Man is Mortal", it returns truth value “TRUE”
"12 + 9 = 3 – 2", it returns truth value “FALSE”

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 Prepositional Logic
uses five connectives which are:
OR (∨)
 is true if at least any of the propositional variable A or B is true.
AND (∧)
 is true if both the propositional variable A and B is true
Negation/ NOT (¬)
 is false when A is true and is true when A is false.
Implication / if-then (→)
 It is false if A is true and B is false. The rest cases are true.
If and only if (⇔)
 is true when p and q are same, i.e. both are false or both are true.

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 Predicate Logic
an expression of one or more variables defined on
some specific domain
The following are some examples of predicates −
Let E(x, y) denote "x = y"
Let X(a, b, c) denote "a + b + c = 0"
Let M(x, y) denote "x is married to y“
Quantifiers
The variable of predicates is quantified by quantifiers.
Two types of quantifier in predicate logic −
 Universal Quantifier and
 Existential Quantifier.

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 Predicate Logic
Universal Quantifier
states that the statements within its scope are true for
every value of the specific variable.
denoted by the symbol ∀
∀xP(x) is read as for every value of x, P(x) is true.
Existential Quantifier
states that the statements within its scope are true for
some values of the specific variable.
denoted by the symbol ∃
∃xP(x) is read as for some values of x, P(x) is true.

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 Functions
an object that setup an input- output relationship
i.e. a function takes an input and produces the required
output
For a function f , with input x, the output y, we write
f(x)=y.
We also say that f maps x to y.

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 Method of proofs
Deductive Proof
Consists of a sequence of statements whose truth leads
us from some initial statement (hypothesis) to a
conclusion statement.
Proof must follow by some accepted logical principle.
The hypothesis may be true or false.
Theorem:
If x >= 4, then 2x >= x2.

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 Method of proofs
Mathematical Induction
Let A be a set of natural numbers such that :
 0єA
For each natural number n, if {0,1,2,3,…….n}єA. Then
A=N.
In particular, induction is used to prove assertions of the
form “ for all nєN, the property is valid”. i.e.
 In the basis step, one has to show that P(0) is true. i.e. the
property is true for 0.
 P holds for n will be the assumption.
 Then one has to prove the validity of P for n+1.

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 Complexity Theory
What can be computed efficiently?
Are there problems that no program can solve in a
limited amount of time or space?
 Decidable Problem :
The problems that can be solved by computer in limited
time.
Undecidable Problem :
can not predict the time of the problem in which a
problem can be solved

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 Computability Theory
What can be computed?
Are there problems that no program can solve?
Classify problems as being solvable or unsolvable.
 Solvable Problems
said to be solvable if you find a solution means there
exists a potential solution
Unsolvable Problem :
instant of time neither we are able to solve the problem
nor in a position to say that the problem can not be
solved

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 Automata Theory
Study of abstract machine and their properties,
providing a mathematical notion of “computer”
Automata are abstract mathematical models of
machines that perform computations on an input by
moving through a series of states
If the computation of an automaton reaches an
accepting configuration it accepts that input

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 Why Study of Automata
For software designing and checking behavior of
digital circuits
For designing software for checking large body of text
as a collection of web pages, to find occurrence of
words, phrases, patterns (i.e. pattern recognition, string
matching, …)
Designing “lexical analyzer” of a compiler, that breaks
input text into logical units called “tokens

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 Brief History:
 Before 1930’s, no any computer were there and Alen Turing
introduced an abstract machine that had all the capabilities of
today’s computers. This conclusion applies to today’s real
machines.
 Later in 1940’s and 1950’s, simple kinds of machines called
finite automata were introduced by a number of researchers.
 In late 1950’s the linguist N. Chomsky begun the study of
formal grammar which are closely related to abstract automata.
 In 1969 S. Cook extended Turing’s study of what could and
what couldn’t be computed and classified the problem as:
Decidable
Tractable/intractable

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 Example 1

Fig: A finite automaton modeling an on/off switch

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 Example 1

Fig: finite automaton modeling recognition of then

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Alphabets - (Represented by ‘Σ’)
Alphabet is a finite non-empty set of symbols.
The symbols can be the letters such as {a, b, c}, bits {0,
1}, digits {0, 1, 2, 3… 9}.
Common characters like $, #, etc.
 {0,1} – Binary alphabets
 {+, −, *} – Special symbol

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Power of Alphabet
The set of all strings of certain length k from an alphabet
is the kth power of that alphabet.
i.e. Σk = {w / |w| = k}
If Σ = {0, 1} then,
Σ0 = {ε}
Σ1 = {0, 1}
Σ2 = {00, 01, 10, 11}
Σ3 = {000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111}

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Kleen Closure Alphabet
The set of all the strings over an alphabet Σ is called
kleen closure of Σ
denoted by Σ*
kleen closure is set of all the strings over alphabet Σ with
length 0 or more.
i.e. Σ* = Σ0 ∪ Σ 1∪ Σ 2 ∪ Σ 3∪ ……………
E.g. A = {0}
A* = {0n / n = 0, 1, 2, …}

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Positive Closure of Alphabet
The set of all the strings over an alphabet Σ, except the
empty string is called positive closure
denoted by Σ+
i.e. Σ + = Σ1∪ Σ 2∪ Σ 3∪……………
Strings
String is a finite sequence of symbols taken from some
alphabet.
E.g. 0110 is a string from binary alphabet,
 “automata” is a string over alphabet {a, b, c … z}.

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Empty String
It is a string with zero occurrences of symbols.
denoted by ‘ε’ (epsilon)
Substring of a string
A string s is called substring of a string w if it is obtained
by removing 0 or more leading or trailing symbols in w
It is proper substring of w if s ≠ w
If s is a string then Substr (s, i, j) is substring of s
beginning at ith position & ending at jth position both
inclusive.

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Concatenation of strings
Let x & y be strings then xy denotes concatenation of x
&y
i.e. the string formed by making a copy of x & following
it by a copy of y.
More precisely, if x is the string of i symbols as x =
a1,a2,a3,…,ai & y is the string of j symbols as y =
b1,b2,b3,…,bj, then xy is the string of i + j symbols as xy
= a1,a2,a3,…,ai,b1,b2,b3,…,bj.
For example; x = 000, y = 111, xy = 000111 & yx =
111000
‘ε’ is identity for concatenation; i.e. for any w, εw = wε =
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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Suffix of a string
A string s is called a suffix of a string w if it is obtained
by removing 0 or more leading symbols in w.
For example; w = abcd, then s = bcd is suffix of w.
 here s is proper suffix if s ≠ w.

Prefix of a string
A string s is called a prefix of a string w if it is obtained
by removing 0 or more trailing symbols of w.
For example; w = abcd, then s = abc is prefix of w,
 Here, s is proper suffix i.e. s is proper suffix if s ≠ w

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 Basic concepts of Automata Theory
Languages
A language L over an alphabet Σ is subset of all the strings
that can be formed out of Σ;
i.e. a language is subset of kleen closure over an alphabet
Σ. i.e. L ⊆ Σ * . (Set of strings chosen from Σ* defines
language)
For example;
 Set of all strings over Σ = {0, 1} with equal number of 0‟s & 1‟s.
L = {ε, 01, 0011, 000111, ………}
 φ is an empty language & is a language over any alphabet.
 {ε} is a language consisting of only empty string.
 Set of binary numbers whose value is a prime:
L = {10, 11, 101, 111, 1011, ……}
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 Exercises
1) Let A be a set with n distinct elements. How many
different binary relations on A are there?
2) If ∑= {a,b,c} then find the followings
a. ∑1 , ∑2 , ∑3
3) If ∑={0,1}. Then find the following languages
a. The language of string of length zero.
b. The language of strings of 0‟s and 1‟s with equal number of each.
c. The language {0n 1 n | n≥1}
d. The language {0i 0 j | 0≤i≤j}.
e. The language of strings with odd number of 0‟s and even number of
1‟s.
4) Define the Kleen closure and power of alphabets.
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