In automata theory, a pushdown automaton (PDA) is a variation of finite automaton that can make use of a stack containing data.
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Pushdown automata differ from finite state machines in two ways:
Pushdown automata choose a transition by indexing a table by input signal, current state, and the symbol at the top of the stack. This means that those three parameters completely determine the transition path that is chosen. Finite state machines just look at the input signal and the current state: they have no stack to work with. Pushdown automata add the stack as a parameter for choice.
Pushdown automata can also manipulate the stack, as part of performing a transition. Finite state machines choose a new state, the result of following the transition. The manipulation can be to push a particular symbol to the top of the stack, or to pop off the top of the stack. The automaton can alternatively ignore the stack, and leave it as it is. The choice of manipulation (or no manipulation) is determined by the transition table.
Put together: Given an input signal, current state, and stack symbol, the automaton can follow a transition to another state, and optionally manipulate (push or pop) the stack.
In general, pushdown automata may have several computations on a given input string, some of which may be halting in accepting configurations while others are not. Thus we have a model which is technically known as a "nondeterministic pushdown automaton" (NPDA). Nondeterminism means that there may be more than just one transition available to follow, given an input signal, state, and stack symbol. If in every situation only one transition is available as continuation of the computation, then the result is a deterministic pushdown automaton (DPDA), a strictly weaker device.
If we allow a finite automaton access to two stacks instead of just one, we obtain a more powerful device, equivalent in power to a Turing machine. A linear bounded automaton is a device which is more powerful than a pushdown automaton but less so than a Turing machine.
Pushdown automata are equivalent to context-free grammars: for every context-free grammar, there exists a pushdown automaton such that the language generated by the grammar is identical with the language generated by the automaton, which is easy to prove. The reverse is true, though harder to prove: for every pushdown automaton there exists a context-free grammar such that the language generated by the automaton is identical with the language generated by the grammar.
A PDA is formally defined as a 7-tuple:
where
An element is a transition of . It has the intended meaning that , in state , with on the input and with as topmost stack symbol, may read , change the state to , pop , replacing it by pushing . The letter (epsilon) denotes the empty string and the component of the transition relation is used to formalize that the PDA can either read a letter from the input, or proceed leaving the input untouched.
In many texts the transition relation is replaced by an (equivalent) formalization, where
Here contains all possible actions in state with on the stack, while reading on the input. One writes for the function precisely when for the relation. Note that finite in this definition is essential.
Computations
In order to formalize the semantics of the pushdown automaton a description of the current situation is introduced. Any 3-tuple is called an instantaneous description (ID) of , which includes the current state, the part of the input tape that has not been read, and the contents of the stack (topmost symbol written first). The transition relation defines the step-relation of on instantaneous descriptions. For instruction there exists a step , for every and every .
In general pushdown automata are nondeterministic meaning that in a given instantaneous description there may be several possible steps. Any of these steps can be chosen in a computation. With the above definition in each step always a single symbol (top of the stack) is popped, replacing it with as many symbols as necessary. As a consequence no step is defined when the stack is empty.
Computations of the pushdown automaton are sequences of steps. The computation starts in the initial state with the initial stack symbol on the stack, and a string on the input tape, thus with initial description . There are two modes of accepting. The pushdown automaton either accepts by final state, which means after reading its input the automaton reaches an accepting state (in ), or it accepts by empty stack (), which means after reading its input the automaton empties its stack. The first acceptance mode uses the internal memory (state), the second the external memory (stack).
Formally one defines
Here represents the reflexive and transitive closure of the step relation meaning any number of consecutive steps (zero, one or more).
For each single pushdown automaton these two languages need to have no relation: they may be equal but usually this is not the case. A specification of the automaton should also include the intended mode of acceptance. Taken over all pushdown automata both acceptance conditions define the same family of languages.
Theorem. For each pushdown automaton one may construct a pushdown automaton such that , and vice versa, for each pushdown automaton one may construct a pushdown automaton such that
The following is the formal description of the PDA which recognizes the language by final state:
, where
consists of the following six instructions:
, , , , , and .
In words, in state for each symbol read, one is pushed onto the stack. Pushing symbol on top of another is formalized as replacing top by . In state for each symbol read one is popped. At any moment the automaton may move from state to state , while it may move from state to accepting state only when the stack consists of a single .
There seems to be no generally used representation for PDA. Here we have depicted the instruction by an edge from state to state labelled by (read ; replace by ).
The following illustrates how the above PDA computes on different input strings. The subscript from the step symbol is here omitted.
(a) Input string = 0011. There are various computations, depending on the moment the move from state to state is made. Only one of these is accepting.
(b) Input string = 00111. Again there are various computations. None of these is accepting.
Every context-free grammar can be transformed into an equivalent pushdown automaton. The derivation process of the grammar is simulated in a leftmost way. Where the grammar rewrites a nonterminal, the PDA takes the topmost nonterminal from its stack and replaces it by the right-hand part of a grammatical rule (expand). Where the grammar generates a terminal symbol, the PDA reads a symbol from input when it is the topmost symbol on the stack (match). In a sense the stack of the PDA contains the unprocessed data of the grammar, corresponding to a pre-order traversal of a derivation tree.
Technically, given a context-free grammar, the PDA is constructed as follows.
As a result we obtain a single state pushdown automaton, the state here is , accepting the context-free language by empty stack. Its initial stack symbol equals the axiom of the context-free grammar.
The converse, finding a grammar for a given PDA, is not that easy. The trick is to code two states of the PDA into the nonterminals of the grammar.
Theorem. For each pushdown automaton one may construct a context-free grammar such that .
A GPDA is a PDA which writes an entire string of some known length to the stack or removes an entire string from the stack in one step.
A GPDA is formally defined as a 6-tuple:
where Q, , , q0 and F are defined the same way as a PDA.
is the transition function.
Computation rules for a GPDA are the same as a PDA except that the ai+1's and bi+1's are now strings instead of symbols.
GPDA's and PDA's are equivalent in that if a language is recognized by a PDA, it is also recognized by a GPDA and vice versa.
One can formulate an analytic proof for the equivalence of GPDA's and PDA's using the following simulation:
Let (q1, w, x1x2...xm) (q2, y1y2...yn) be a transition of the GPDA
where , , , , , .
Construct the following transitions for the PDA:
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