A cooperating system of finite automata (CS-FA) has more than one finite automata (FA's) and an input tape. These FA's operate independently on the input tape and can communicate with each other on the same cell of the input tape. For each k ≥ 1, let L[CS-1DFA(k)] (L[CS-1UFA(k)]) be the class of sets accepted by CS-FA's with k one-way deterministic finite automata (alternating finite automata with only universal states). We show that L[CS-1DFA(k+1)] - L[CS-1UFA(k)] ≠ ∅ and L[CS-1UFA(2)] - ∪1≤k<∞L[CS-1DFA(k)] ≠ ∅.

This paper investigates the accepting powers of one-way alternating multi-stack-counter automata (lamsca's) and one-way alternating multi-counter automata (lamsca's) which operate in realtime. For each k1, let 1ASCA (k, real) (1ACA(k, real)) denote the class of sets accepted by realtime one-way alternating k-stach-counter (k-counter) automata, and let 1USCA(k, real)(1UCA(k, real)) denote the class of sets accepted by realtime one-way alternating k-stack-counter (k-counter) automata with only universal states. We first investigate a relationship between the accepting powers of realtime lamsca's (lamca's) with only universal states, with only existential states, and with full alternation. We then investigate hierarchical properties based on the numbers of counters and stackcounters, and show, for example, that for each k1, 1USCA(k+1, real)-1ASCA(k, real)φ and 1UCA(k+1, real)-1ACA(k, real)φ. We finally investigate a relationship between the accepting powers of realtime lamsca's and lamca's, and show, for example, that there are no i and j such that 1UCA(i, real)=1USCA(j, real), and 1USCA(k, real)-1ACA(k, real)φ for each k1.

This paper introduces a 1-inkdot two-way alternating pushdown automaton which is a two-way alternating pushdown automaton (2apda) with the additional power of marking at most 1 tape-cell on the input (with an inkdot) once. We first investigate a relationship between the accepting powers of sublogarithmically space-bounded 2apda's with and without 1 inkdot, and show, for example, that sublogarithmically space-bounded 2apda's with 1 inkdot are more powerful than those which have no inkdots. We next investigate an alternation hierarchy for sublogarithmically space-bounded 1-inkdot 2apda's, and show that the alternation hierarchy on the first level for 1-inkdot 2apda's holds, and we also show that 1-inkdot two-way nondeterministic pushdown automata using sublogarithmic space are incomparable with 1-inkdot two-way alternating pushdown automata with only universal states using the same space.

This paper investigates some fundamental properties of 2-way alternating multi-counter automata (2amca's) with only existential (universal) states which have sublinear space and 1 inkdot. It is shown that for any function s(n) log n such that log s(n)=o(log n), s(n) space-bounded 1-inkdot 2amca's with only existential states are incomparable with the ones with only universal states, and the ones with only existential (universal) states are not closed under complementation.

This paper investigates the closure properties of 1-inkdot nondeterministic Turing machines and 1-inkdot alternating Turing machines with only universal states which have sublogarithmic space. We show for example that the classes of sets accepted by these Turing machines are not closed under length-preserving homomorphism, concatenation with regular set, Kleene closure, and complementation.

This paper investigates a hierarchical property based on the number of inkdots in the accepting powers of sublogarithmic space-bounded multi-inkdot two-way alternating Turing machines with only universal states. For each k1 and any function L(n), let strong-2UTMk(L(n)) (weak-2UTMk(L(n))) be the class of sets accepted by strongly (weakly) L(n) space-bounded k-inkdot two-way alternating Turing machines with only universal states. We show that for each k1, strong-2UTMk+1(log log n) - weak-2UTMk(o(log n)) Ø.

This paper investigates the accepting powers of two-way alternating Turing machines (2ATM's) with only existential (universal) states which have inkdots and sublogarithmic space. It is shown that for sublogarithmic space-bounded computations, (i) multi-inkdot 2ATM's with only existential states and the ones with only universal states are incomparable, (ii) k-inkdot 2ATM's are better than k-inkdot 2ATM's with only existential (universal) states, k ≥ 0, and (iii) the class of sets accepted by multi-inkdot 2ATM's with only existential (universal) states is not closed under complementation.

This paper investigates the closure properties of multi-inkdot nondeterministic Turing machines with sublogarithmic space. We show that the class of sets accepted by the Turing machines is not closed under concatenation with regular set, Kleene closure, length-preserving homomorphism, and intersection.

This paper investigates some fundamental properties of one-way alternating pushdown automata with sublinear space. We first show that one-way nondeterministic pushdown automata are incomparale with one-way alternating pushdown automata with only universal states, for spaces between log log n and log n, and also for spaces between log n and n/log n. We then show that there exists an infinite space hierarchy among one-way alternating pushdown automata with only universal states which have sublinear space.

This paper investigates the accepting powers of deterministic, Las Vegas, self-verifying nondeterministic, and nondeterministic one-way multi-counter automata with time-bounds. We show that (1) for each k1, there is a language accepted by a Las Vegas one-way k-counter automaton operating in real time, but not accepted by any deterministic one-way k-counter automaton operating in linear time, (2) there is a language accepted by a self-verifying nondeterministic one-way 2-counter automaton operating in real time, but not accepted by any Las Vegas one-way multi-counter automaton operating in polynomial time, (3) there is a language accepted by a self-verifying nondeterministic one-way 1-counter automaton operating in real time, but not accepted by any deterministic one-way multi-counter automaton operating in polynomial time, and (4) there is a language accepted by a nondeterministic one-way 1-counter automaton operating in real time, but not accepted by any self-verifying nondeterministic one-way multi-counter automaton operating in polynomial time.

This paper investigates the accepting powers of one-way alternating and deterministic multi-counter automata operating in realtime. We partially solve the open problem posed in [4], and show that for each k1, there is a language accepted by a realtime one-way deterministic (k+3)-counter automaton, but not accepted by any realtime one-way alternating k-counter automaton.

This paper investigates the accepting powers of one-way alternatiog finite automata with counters and stack-counters (lafacs's) which operate in realtime. (The difference between counter" and stack-counter" is that the latter can be entered without the contents being changed, but the former cannot.) For each k0 and l0 ((k, l)(0, 0)), let 1AFACS(k, l, real) denote the class of sets accepted by realtime one-way alternating finite automata with k counters and l stack-counters, and let 1UFACS(k, l, real) (1NFACS(k, l, real)) denote the class of sets accepted by realtime one-way alternating finite automata with k counters and l stack-counters which have only universal (existential) states. We first investigate a relationship among the accepting powers of realtime lafacs's with only universal states, with only existential states, and with full alternation, and show, for example, that for each k0 and l0 ((k, l)(0, 0)), 1UFACS(k, l, real) 1NFACS(k, l, real) 1AFACS(k, l, real). We then investigate hierarchical properties based on the number of counters and stack-counters, and show, foe example, that for each k0 and l0 ((k, l)(0, 0)), and each X{U, N}, 1XFACS(k1, l, real)1AFACS(k, l, real)φ. We finally investigate a relationship between counters and stack-counters, and show, for example, that for each k0, l0 and m1, and each X{U, N}, 1XFACS(k, lm, real)1AFACS(k2m1, l, real)φ.