Actes, Congrs intern. Math., 1970. Tome 3, p. 265 267.

E 7 - PROBLMES MATHMATIQUES
DE LA THORIE DE L'INFORMATION
LANGAGE MACHINE
ALGEBRAIC ASPECTS
OF AUTOMATA THEORY
by Samuel

EILENBERG

Lei be a monoid. The following operations on subsets of S will be called

rational operations :
(1) Union : A UB
(2) Product : AB = {ab \ a E A , b E B}
(3) Closure : A+ = A U A2 U A3 U . . .
The class of rational subsets of S is defined as the
the subsets of cardinality < 1 and closed under the
is a finitely generated free monoid with base 2 , then
are exactly the sets recognized (or accepted) by finite
Theorem).

least class containing all

rational operations. If S
the rational subsets of S
state automata (Kleene's

Let S and S' be monoids and let / : S -> S' be a relation. The graph / * of /
is then a subset of the product monoid S x S'. The relation / is called rational
if its graph is a rational subset of x Sf. If g : Sf -> S" is another rational relation, the composed relation fg : S -* S" need in general not be rational. However
fg is rational if the monoid S' is free.
The last fact leads to the following formal development. We shall consider a
fixed countably infinite set 2 0 and denote by 2g the free monoid generated
by 2 0 . A subset A of 2 * is called finitary if A C 2 * for some finite subset 2
of 2 0 . All rational subsets are finitary. Also for every rational relation/ : 2g -* 2 J
there exists a finite subset 2 of 2 0 such that / # is contained in 2 * x 2 * . For
finitary subsets A9 B (of 2 J ) we define B <^4 (A rationally dominates B) if
B = Af for some rational relation / . This relation < is reflexive and transitive.
Rational equivalence A = B is defined by A < B and B<^A. The empty set
0 is the smallest rational equivalence class. All non-empty rational subsets (of 2 j )
form a single equivalence class Rat. We denote by ^ the (partially) ordered
set of rational equivalence classes of finitary subsets excluding the class of the
set 0. Thus Rat becomes the smallest element of #e o . If Ax> A2 E 3 ^ we may
choose representatives Ax E A p A2 E A2 which are in general position i.e. Ax C 2f,
A2 E 2 * where 2 , and 2 2 are disjoint finite subsets of 2 J . Then AXUA2
represents a unique class Aj v A 2 of # 0 which is the least upper bound of Ax and A 2
in #C0. Thus S ^ is an upper semi-lattice.

266

& EILENBERG

E 7

Purely formally one defines the completion #e of 9S 0 as follows. A^ ideal I

in #C0 is a non empty subset of #C0 such that
B<A

&

AE/=>BE/

Ax , A2 E / => At v A2 E /
The ideals of #0 (partially) ordered by inclusion form a complete lattice #6.
The upper semi-lattice #60 is imbedded into #C by assigning to each A E #e0 the
principal ideal
/A={B|BE3e0,

B<A}

This imbedding preserves the order and least upper bounds. In # all ideals are
principal.
An element of ^ may be viewed as a class of subsets of 2 J satisfying the
following conditions
(4) All sets in are finitary.
(5) contains at least one non-empty set.
(6) If A E e then Afe fi for every rational relation / : 2 j -* 2J.
(7) If Al9 A2 E then ^

U 4 2 E 6.

Such a class of sets will be called a cone. The cone 6 is principal with
A as generator if
fi = {B\B
=Af}
with / ranging over all rational relations / : 2 J -> 2 J.
The lattice #C is called the rational hierarchy, and its study may properly
be defined as one of the main objectives of the theory of automata and abstract
langages. Various algebraic operations may be introduced in # which thus acquires
a rich algebraic structure. Most of the interesting classes of sets turn out to be
principal cones with "interesting" generators.
As an example of a new problem arising from the point of view presented
here, consider a cone and define
e' = {B\B<A

for some

AeC}

where B<A
means B<A
but not B=A.
One easily observes that if is
not a principal cone then ' = . If is principal with generator A then ' is
a cone iff A is indecomposable i.e. if
A =AX

UA29

Ax <A9

A2

<A

imply
Ax = A

or

A2

=A.

This is equivalent with itself being indecomposable in the sense that

= ex v e 2
implies = or = 2 . A recent result of Schutzenberger (unpublished)
shows that the cone of algebraic sets (= context free languages) is indecomposable.

ALGEBRAIC ASPECTS OF AUTOMATA THEORY

267

Rational relations were first studied by Elgot and Mezie. In a different terminology, cones have been studied intensively by Seymour Ginsburg and his pupils
and collaborators. Essentially there is nothing new in this article except for a
hopefully convenient algebraic setting.

Columbia University
522/ Dept. of Mathematics,
New York, N.Y. 10 027 (USA)