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Semirings and Formal Power Series

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Handbook of Weighted Automata

Abstract

This chapter presents basic foundations for the theory of weighted automata: semirings and formal power series. A fundamental question is how to extend the star operation (Kleene iteration) from languages to series. For this, we investigate ordered, complete and continuous semirings and the related concepts of star semirings and Conway semirings. We derive natural properties for the Kleene star of cycle-free series and also of matrices often used to analyze the behavior of weighted automata. Finally, we investigate cycle-free linear equations which provide a useful tool for proving identities for formal power series.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Universität Leipzig, 04009, Leipzig, Germany

    Manfred Droste

  2. Institut für Diskrete Mathematik und Geometrie, Technische Universität Wien, 1040, Wien, Austria

    Werner Kuich

Authors
  1. Manfred Droste
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  2. Werner Kuich
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Correspondence to Manfred Droste .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Informatik, Universität Leipzig, Augustusplatz 10-11, Leipzig, 04109, Germany

    Manfred Droste

  2. Institut für Diskrete, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10, Wien, 1040, Austria

    Werner Kuich

  3. Fak. Informatik, TU Dresden, Nöthnitzer Str. 46, Dresden, 01187, Germany

    Heiko Vogler

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Droste, M., Kuich, W. (2009). Semirings and Formal Power Series. In: Droste, M., Kuich, W., Vogler, H. (eds) Handbook of Weighted Automata. Monographs in Theoretical Computer Science. An EATCS Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01492-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01492-5_1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-01492-5

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