In theoretical computer science, stuttering equivalence, a relation written as
- ,
can be seen as a partitioning of path and into blocks, so that states in the block of one path are labeled the same as states in the block of the other path. Corresponding blocks may have different lengths.
Formally, this can be expressed as two infinite paths and which are stuttering equivalent if there are two infinite sequences of integers and such that for every block holds .
Stuttering equivalence is not the same as bisimulation, since bisimulation cannot capture the semantics of the 'eventually' (or 'finally') operator found in linear temporal/computation tree logic(branching time logic)(modal logic). So-called branching bisimulation has to be used.
Famous quotes containing the word stuttering:
“Had she been worth the blood, the cramped cries, the little stuttering bravado,
The gradual dulling of those Negro eyes,
The sudden, overwhelming little-boyness in that barn?”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)