Fly-automata, model-checking and recognizability

Abstract: The Recognizability Theorem states that if a set of finite graphs is definable by a monadic second-order (MSO) sentence, then it is recognizable with respect to the graph algebra upon which the definition of clique-width is based. Recognizability is an algebraic notion, defined in terms of congruences that can also be formulated by means of finite automata on the terms that describe the considered graphs. This theorem entails that the verification of MSO graph properties, or equivalently, the model-checking problem for MSO logic over finite binary relational structures, is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) for the parameter consisting of the formula that expresses the property and the clique-width (or the tree-width) of the input graph or structure. The corresponding algorithms can be implemented by means of fly-automata whose transitions are computed on the fly and not tabulated. We review two versions of recognizability, we present fly-automata by means of examples showing that they can also compute values attached to graphs. We show that fly-automata with infinite sets of states yield a simple proof of the strong version of the Recognizability Theorem. This proof has not been published previously.