We show that the minimization of visibly pushdown automata is NP-complete. This result is obtained by introducing immersions, that recognize multiple languages (over a usual, non-visible alphabet) using a common deterministic transition graph, such that each language is associated with an initial state and a set of final states. We show that minimizing immersions is NP-complete, and reduce this problem to the minimization of visibly pushdown automata.

@article{GauwinMR19,
  title = {Minimization of visibly pushdown automata is NP-complete},
  author = {Olivier Gauwin and Anca Muscholl and Michael Raskin},
  journal = {Logical Methods in Computer Science},
  volume = {Volume 16, Issue 1},
  year = {2020},
  doi = {10.23638/lmcs-16(1:14)2020}
}