Alternating Automata and Program Verification

We describe an automata-theoretic approach to the automatic verification of finite-state programs. The basic idea underlying this approach is that for any temporal formula we can construct an alternating automaton that accepts precisely the computations that satisfy the formula. For linear temporal logics the automaton runs on infinite words while for branching temporal logics the automaton runs on infinite trees. The simple combinatorial structures that emerge from the automata-theoretic approach decouple the logical and algorithmic components of finite-state-program verification and yield clear and general verification algorithms.