Re: quantum Computing

Rick Busdiecker writes:

Not true. What that means is that a polynomial time solution exists for an NFA. The only part has not been shown.

Mike McNally responds:

While we're being picky, I'll point out that (unless I'm wrong of course) it's not really an NFA, but a non-deterministic Turing machine (an "NTM"?) that's the automaton at issue here.

That is correct. As a matter of fact, it's an easy theorem that an NFA has the same computing capacity as a DFA; it is not known whether this theorem holds for more powerful machines, and is in fact the heart of the P ?= NP conjecture.