Data Multi-Pushdown Automata

We extend the classical model of multi-pushdown systems by considering systems that operate on a finite set of variables ranging over natural numbers. The conditions on variables are defined via gap-order constraints that allow to compare variables for equality, or to check that the gap between the values of two variables exceeds a given natural number. Furthermore, each message inside a stack is equipped with a data item representing its value. When a message is pushed to the stack, its value may be defined by a variable. When a message is popped, its value may be copied to a variable. Thus, we obtain a system that is infinite in multiple dimensions, namely we have a number of stacks that may contain an unbounded number of messages each of which is equipped with a natural number. It is well-known that the verification of any non-trivial property of multi-pushdown systems is undecidable, even for two stacks and for a finite data-domain. In this paper, we show the decidability of the reachability problem for the classes of data multi-pushdown system that admit a bounded split-width (or equivalently a bounded tree-width). As an immediate consequence, we obtain decidability for several subclasses of data multi-pushdown systems. These include systems with single stacks, restricted ordering policies on stack operations, bounded scope, bounded phase, and bounded context switches