Regular languages defined by first-order formulas without quantifier alternation

08/22/2022

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by   Andreas Krebs, et al.

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We give a simple new proof that regular languages defined by first-order sentences with no quantifier alteration can be defined by such sentences in which only regular atomic formulas appear. Earlier proofs of this fact relied on arguments from circuit complexity or algebra. Our proof is much more elementary, and uses only the most basic facts about finite automata.