The Černý conjecture and 1-contracting automata (Q311503)

Summary: A deterministic finite automaton is synchronizing if there exists a word that sends all states of the automaton to the same state. \textit{J. Černý} conjectured in [Mat.-Fyz. Čas., Slovensk. Akad. Vied 14, 208--216 (1964; Zbl 0137.01101)] that a synchronizing automaton with \(n\) states has a synchronizing word of length at most \((n-1)^2\). We introduce the notion of aperiodically 1-contracting automata and prove that in these automata all subsets of the state set are reachable, so that in particular they are synchronizing. Furthermore, we give a sufficient condition under which the Černý conjecture holds for aperiodically 1-contracting automata. As a special case, we prove some results for circular automata.