  Combining ideas from distributed algorithms and alternating automata, we
introduce a new class of finite graph automata that recognize precisely the
languages of finite graphs definable in monadic second-order logic. By
restricting transitions to be nondeterministic or deterministic, we also obtain
two strictly weaker variants of our automata for which the emptiness problem is
decidable. As an application, we suggest how suitable graph automata might be
useful in formal verification of distributed algorithms, using Floyd-Hoare
logic.
