automaton.eliminate_state(state=-1)

In the Brzozowski-McCluskey procedure, remove one state.

Preconditions:

  • The labelset is oneset (i.e., the automaton is spontaneous).
  • The weightset is expressionset (i.e., the weights are expressions).
  • The state is indeed a state of the automaton, or it is -1, in which case a heuristics is used to select the next state.

See also:

Examples

In [1]:
import vcsn

The following examples will use this automaton as input.

In [2]:
a0 = vcsn.B.expression('ab*c').standard()
a0
Out[2]:
%3 I0 0 0 I0->0 F4 1 1 0->1 a 3 3 1->3 b 4 4 1->4 c 3->3 b 3->4 c 4->F4

We first need to convert this automaton into a spontaneous automaton labeled with expressions. That's the purpose of automaton.lift.

In [3]:
a1 = a0.lift()
a1
Out[3]:
%3 I0 0 0 I0->0 F3 1 1 0->1 ⟨a⟩ 2 2 1->2 ⟨b⟩ 3 3 1->3 ⟨c⟩ 2->2 ⟨b⟩ 2->3 ⟨c⟩ 3->F3

Explicit state elimination

Let's remove state 2:

In [4]:
a2 = a1.eliminate_state(2)
a2
Out[4]:
%3 I0 0 0 I0->0 F3 1 1 0->1 ⟨a⟩ 3 3 1->3 ⟨c+bb*c⟩ 3->F3

Note that the result is a fresh automaton: the original automaton is not modified:

In [5]:
a1
Out[5]:
%3 I0 0 0 I0->0 F3 1 1 0->1 ⟨a⟩ 2 2 1->2 ⟨b⟩ 3 3 1->3 ⟨c⟩ 2->2 ⟨b⟩ 2->3 ⟨c⟩ 3->F3

Let's eliminate state 1.

In [6]:
a3 = a2.eliminate_state(1)
a3
Out[6]:
%3 I0 0 0 I0->0 F2 2 2 0->2 ⟨a(c+bb*c)⟩ 2->F2

We can also remove the initial and final states.

In [7]:
a4 = a3.eliminate_state(0)
a4
Out[7]:
%3 I1 1 1 I1->1 ⟨a(c+bb*c)⟩ F1 1->F1

Eventually, when all the states have been removed, you get a broken automaton, with no states, but a "lone transition" that bears the answer.

In [8]:
a5 = a4.eliminate_state(1)
a5
Out[8]:
%3 Ipost Fpre Ipost->Fpre ⟨a(c+bb*c)⟩

Rest assured that such automata (no states but with one transition) never occur in the normal course of use of Vcsn.

Using the heuristics

Use -1 (or no argument at all) to leave the choice of the next state to eliminate to Vcsn. This is how automaton.expression works.

In [9]:
a1.eliminate_state()
Out[9]:
%3 I1 1 1 I1->1 ⟨a⟩ F3 2 2 1->2 ⟨b⟩ 3 3 1->3 ⟨c⟩ 2->2 ⟨b⟩ 2->3 ⟨c⟩ 3->F3
In [10]:
a1.eliminate_state().eliminate_state().eliminate_state().eliminate_state()
Out[10]:
%3 Ipost Fpre Ipost->Fpre ⟨ac+abb*c⟩

Interactive Examples

You may use the following widgets to see, step by step, how state elimination works.

In [11]:
a2 = a1 ** 2
%demo a2 eliminate_state