Nested words, a model for recursive programs proposed by Alur and Madhusudan, have recently gained much interest. In this paper we introduce quantitative extensions and study nested word series which assign to nested words elements of a semiring. We show that regular nested word series coincide with series definable in weighted logics as introduced by Droste and Gastin. For this we establish a connection between nested words and the free bisemigroup. Applying our result, we obtain characterizations of algebraic formal power series in terms of weighted logics. This generalizes results of Lautemann, Schwentick and Therien on context-free languages.

• 03B70 - Logic in computer science
• 03D05 - Automata and formal grammars in connection with logical questions
• 68N30 - Mathematical aspects of software engineering (specification, verification, metrics, requirements, etc.)
• 68Q45 - Formal languages and automata
• 68Q60 - Specification and verification (program logics, model checking, etc.)
• 68Q70 - Algebraic theory of languages and automata