Automata and minimization

Abstract

Already in the seventies, strong results illustrating the intimate relationship between category theory and automata theory have been described and are still investigated. In this column, we provide a uniform presentation of the basic concepts that underlie minimization results in automata theory. We then use this knowledge for introducing a new model of automata that is an hybrid of deterministic finite automata and automata weighted over a field. These automata are very natural, and enjoy minimization result by design. The presentation of this paper is indeed categorical in essence, but it assumes no prior knowledge from the reader. It is also non-conventional in that it is neither algebraic, nor co-algebraic oriented.