Efficient Learning of Weak Deterministic B\"uchi Automata

Abstract

We present an efficient Angluin-style learning algorithm for weak deterministic B\"uchi automata (wDBAs). Different to ordinary deterministic B\"uchi and co-B\"uchi automata, wDBAs have a minimal normal form, and we show that we can learn this minimal normal form efficiently. We provide an improved result on the number of queries required and show on benchmarks that this theoretical advantage translates into significantly fewer queries: while previous approaches require a quintic number of queries, we only require quadratically many queries in the size of the canonic wDBA that recognises the target language.