A new upper bound for separating words

Abstract

We prove that for any distinct $x,y \in \{0,1\}^n$, there is a deterministic finite automaton with $\widetilde{O}(n^{1/3})$ states that accepts $x$ but not $y$. This improves Robson's 1989 upper bound of $\widetilde{O}(n^{2/5})$.