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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.92

On Piecewise Affine Reachability with Bellman Operators

Authors: Anton Varonka and Kazuki Watanabe

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)

Abstract

A piecewise affine map is one of the simplest mathematical objects exhibiting complex dynamics. The reachability problem of piecewise affine maps is as follows: Given two vectors s, t ∈ ℚ^d and a piecewise affine map f: ℚ^d → ℚ^d, is there n ∈ ℕ such that fⁿ(s) = t? Koiran, Cosnard, and Garzon show that the reachability problem of piecewise affine maps is undecidable even in dimension 2. Most of the recent progress has been focused on decision procedures for one-dimensional piecewise affine maps, where the reachability problem has been shown to be decidable for some subclasses. However, the general undecidability discouraged research into positive results in arbitrary dimension. In this work, we investigate a rich subclass of piecewise affine maps arising as Bellman operators of Markov decision processes (MDPs). We consider the reachability problem restricted to this subclass and examine its decidability in arbitrary dimensions. We establish that the reachability problem for Bellman operators is decidable in any dimension under either of the following conditions: (i) the target vector t is not the fixed point of the operator f; or (ii) the initial and target vectors s and t are comparable with respect to the componentwise order. Furthermore, we show that the reachability problem for two-dimensional Bellman operators is decidable for arbitrary s, t ∈ ℚ^d, in contrast to the known undecidability of reachability for general piecewise affine maps.

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Anton Varonka and Kazuki Watanabe. On Piecewise Affine Reachability with Bellman Operators. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 92:1-92:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{varonka_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.92,
  author =	{Varonka, Anton and Watanabe, Kazuki},
  title =	{{On Piecewise Affine Reachability with Bellman Operators}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{92:1--92:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.92},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-241998},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.92},
  annote =	{Keywords: piecewise affine map, reachability, value iteration, Markov decision process, Bellman operator}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CALCO.2025.14

Pareto Fronts for Compositionally Solving String Diagrams of Parity Games

Authors: Kazuki Watanabe

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 342, 11th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science (CALCO 2025)

Abstract

Open parity games are proposed as a compositional extension of parity games with algebraic operations, forming string diagrams of parity games. A potential application of string diagrams of parity games is to describe a large parity game with a given compositional structure and solve it efficiently as a divide-and-conquer algorithm by exploiting its compositional structure. Building on our recent progress in open Markov decision processes, we introduce Pareto fronts of open parity games, offering a framework for multi-objective solutions. We establish the positional determinacy of open parity games with respect to their Pareto fronts through a novel translation method. Our translation converts an open parity game into a parity game tailored to a given single-objective. Furthermore, we present a simple algorithm for solving open parity games, derived from this translation that allows the application of existing efficient algorithms for parity games. Expanding on this foundation, we develop a compositional algorithm for string diagrams of parity games.

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Kazuki Watanabe. Pareto Fronts for Compositionally Solving String Diagrams of Parity Games. In 11th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science (CALCO 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 342, pp. 14:1-14:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{watanabe:LIPIcs.CALCO.2025.14,
  author =	{Watanabe, Kazuki},
  title =	{{Pareto Fronts for Compositionally Solving String Diagrams of Parity Games}},
  booktitle =	{11th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science (CALCO 2025)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-383-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{342},
  editor =	{C\^{i}rstea, Corina and Knapp, Alexander},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CALCO.2025.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-235734},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CALCO.2025.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: parity game, compositionality, string diagram}
}

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Documents authored by Watanabe, Kazuki

On Piecewise Affine Reachability with Bellman Operators

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Pareto Fronts for Compositionally Solving String Diagrams of Parity Games

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