In automata theory, a self-verifying finite automaton (SVFA) is a special kind of a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) with a symmetric kind of nondeterminism introduced by Hromkovič and Schnitger.[1] Generally, in self-verifying nondeterminism, each computation path is concluded with any of the three possible answers: yes, no, and I do not know. For each input string, no two paths may give contradictory answers, namely both answers yes and no on the same input are not possible. At least one path must give answer yes or no, and if it is yes then the string is considered accepted. SVFA accept the same class of languages as deterministic finite automata (DFA) and NFA but have different state complexity.
- ^ Hromkovič, Juraj; Schnitger, Georg (2001). "On the Power of Las Vegas for One-Way Communication Complexity, OBDDs, and Finite Automata". Information and Computation. 169 (2): 284–296. doi:10.1006/inco.2001.3040. ISSN 0890-5401.