Logic List Mailing Archive

Postdoctoral position in games, automata and logics, Paris (France), Deadline: tomorrow (30 Sep 2011)

Post-doctoral position: ERC grant GALE (Games, Automata and Logic's 
Extensions)

Subject: Verification of regular cost functions.

Regular cost functions extend the notion of regular languages with 
counting capabilities, while retaining many important decibility 
properties [C09a,b,CL10]. It prolongates the theory of distance automata 
[H82,L87] and extensions [K05].

A _cost function_ is a function from words (or infinite words, trees, or 
infinite trees) to non-negative integers or infinitity, which is 
considered modulo an equivalence relation which does not preserve exact 
values, but preserves the existence of a bound on each subset of the 
domain. This abstraction allows to recover all the effective 
equivalences and decidability results which are usually lost when moving 
to a quantitative setting. In particular the effective equivalence 
between automata, monoids and monadic logic are preserved in this 
setting, and the corresponding decision procedures still exist 
(extending the classical one).

The theory of regular cost functions is now better understood. The 
subject of this post-doctoral position is to study the applications of 
this theory in the context of verification.


[CL10] T.Colcombet and Christof Löding. Regular cost functions over 
finite trees. In LICS, pages 70-79, 2010.

[C09a] T.Colcombet. The Theory of Stabilisation Monoids and Regular Cost 
Functions. In 36th ICALP, number 5556 of LNCS, pages 139-150, 2009. 
Springer.

[C09b] T.Colcombet. Regular cost functions, Part I: logic and algebra 
over words. Note: Submitted, 2009.

[K05] Daniel Kirsten. Distance desert automata and the star height 
problem. RAIRO, 3(39):455?509, 2005.

[L87] Hing Leung. An Algebraic Method for Solving Decision Problems in 
Finite Automata Theory. PhD thesis, 1987.

[H82] K.Hashiguchi. Limitedness theorem on finite automata with
distance functions. J. Comput. Syst. Sci., 24(2):233-244, 1982.



Background:
The candidate should have a strong background in theoretical computer 
science.
In particular he/she should have a knowledge in one or more subjects among
- formal language theory,
- algebra,
- logic,
- verification.

Founding:
The post-doctoral position will be paid around 2000 euros, free of 
charges, per month.

Location: Liafa, Paris
http://www.liafa.jussieu.fr/

Dates of the position:
The start of the position is to be decided with the applicant,
and the duration is a priori of one year, also subject to
discussion.


Application procedure: The applicants should send in electronic form:
1- a Curriculum Vitae
2- title and summary of the PHD
3- list of publications
4- official reports on PHD (preferably in French or English or German),
5- recommandation letters are welcome.
Any particular situation (PHD not yet defended, starting date too early 
, etc
...) should be clearly explained by a joint letter.
The applications should be sent, by email, to T.Colcombet
(thomas.colcombet@liafa.jussieu.fr).
The decision will be notified by the 7th of September.


Contact: Thomas Colcombet
Email: thomas.colcombet@liafa.jussieu.fr
URL: http://www.liafa.jussieu.fr/colcombe

Important Dates:
Applications must be sent, by email, before 30/09/2011.
The answer will be given the 07/10/11.