Lattice automata

Several verification methods involve reasoning about multi-valued systems, in which an atomic proposition is interpreted at a state as a lattice element, rather than a Boolean value. The automata-theoretic approach for reasoning about Boolean-valued systems has proven to be very useful and powerful. We develop an automata-theoretic framework for reasoning about multi-valued objects, and describe its application. The basis to our framework are lattice automata on finite and infinite words, which assign to each input word a lattice element. We study the expressive power of lattice automata, their closure properties, the blow-up involved in related constructions, and decision problems for them. Our framework and results are different and stronger then those known for semi-ring and weighted automata. Lattice automata exhibit interesting features from a theoretical point of view. In particular, we study the complexity of constructions and decision problems for lattice automata in terms of the size of both the automaton and the underlying lattice. For example, we show that while determinization of lattice automata involves a blow up that depends on the size of the lattice, such a blow up can be avoided when we complement lattice automata. Thus, complementation is easier than determinization. In addition to studying the theoretical aspects of lattice automata, we describe how they can be used for an efficient reasoning about a multi-valued extension of LTL.