Viterbi Algorithm Generalized for n-Tape Best-Path Search

We present a generalization of the Viterbi algorithm for identifying the path with minimal (resp. maximal) weight in a n-tape weighted finite-state machine (n-WFSM), that accepts a given n-tuple of input strings 〈s1, . . . sn〉. It also allows us to compile the best transduction of a given input n-tuple by a weighted (n+m)-WFSM (transducer) with n input and m output tapes. Our algorithm has a worst-case time complexity of O ( |s||E| log |s||Q| ), where n and |s| are the number and average length of the strings in the n-tuple, and |Q| and |E| the number of states and transitions in the n-WFSM, respectively. A straight forward alternative, consisting in intersection followed by classical shortest-distance search, operates in O ( |s|(|E|+ |Q|) log |s||Q| ) time.