{"paper":{"title":"Slowly synchronizing automata with fixed alphabet size","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["math.CO"],"primary_cat":"cs.FL","authors_text":"Hans Zantema, Henk Don, Michiel de Bondt","submitted_at":"2016-09-22T08:02:33Z","abstract_excerpt":"It was conjectured by \\v{C}ern\\'y in 1964 that a synchronizing DFA on $n$ states always has a shortest synchronizing word of length at most $(n-1)^2$, and he gave a sequence of DFAs for which this bound is reached.\n  In this paper, we investigate the role of the alphabet size. For each possible alphabet size, we count DFAs on $n \\le 6$ states which synchronize in $(n-1)^2 - e$ steps, for all $e < 2\\lceil n/2 \\rceil$. Furthermore, we give constructions of automata with any number of states, and $3$, $4$, or $5$ symbols, which synchronize slowly, namely in $n^2 - 3n + O(1)$ steps.\n  In addition,"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1609.06853","kind":"arxiv","version":5},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}