Periodic properties of pushdown automata

Abstract

Abstract Finite automata transform periodic sequences into periodic ones. The period of the output sequence is bounded from above by a linear function of input period. It is known that pushdown automata also preserve the set of periodic sequences. We prove that the output period for one-counter pushdown automata is bounded from above by a quadratic function of input period. We also give an example of an automaton with a quadratic lower bound on output period.