The geometry of reachability in continuous vector addition systems with states

We study the geometry of reachability sets of continuous vector addition systems with states (VASS). In particular we establish that they are “almost” Minkowski sums of convex cones and zonotopes generated by the vectors labelling the transitions of the VASS. We use the latter to prove that short so-called linear path schemes suffice as witnesses of reachability in continuous VASS. Then, we give new polynomial-time algorithms for the reachability problem for linear path schemes. Finally, we also establish that enriching the model with zero tests makes the reachability problem intractable already for linear path schemes of dimension two.