A Type-Directed Negation Elimination

In the modal mu-calculus, a formula is well-formed if each recursive variable occurs underneath an even number of negations. By means of De Morgan's laws, it is easy to transform any well-formed formula into an equivalent formula without negations -- its negation normal form. Moreover, if the formula is of size n, its negation normal form of is of the same size O(n). The full modal mu-calculus and the negation normal form fragment are thus equally expressive and concise. In this paper we extend this result to the higher-order modal fixed point logic (HFL), an extension of the modal mu-calculus with higher-order recursive predicate transformers. We present a procedure that converts a formula into an equivalent formula without negations of quadratic size in the worst case and of linear size when the number of variables of the formula is fixed.Comment: In Proceedings FICS 2015, arXiv:1509.0282

Model-Checking Process Equivalences

Process equivalences are formal methods that relate programs and system which, informally, behave in the same way. Since there is no unique notion of what it means for two dynamic systems to display the same behaviour there are a multitude of formal process equivalences, ranging from bisimulation to trace equivalence, categorised in the linear-time branching-time spectrum. We present a logical framework based on an expressive modal fixpoint logic which is capable of defining many process equivalence relations: for each such equivalence there is a fixed formula which is satisfied by a pair of processes if and only if they are equivalent with respect to this relation. We explain how to do model checking, even symbolically, for a significant fragment of this logic that captures many process equivalences. This allows model checking technology to be used for process equivalence checking. We show how partial evaluation can be used to obtain decision procedures for process equivalences from the generic model checking scheme.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2012, arXiv:1210.202

Three notes on the complexity of model checking fixpoint logic with chop

This paper analyses the complexity of model checking fixpoint logic with Chop – an extension of the modal μ-calculus with a sequential composition operator. It uses two known game-based characterisations to derive the following results: the combined model checking complexity as well as the data complexity of FLC are EXPTIME-complete. This is already the case for its alternation-free fragment. The expression complexity of FLC is trivially P-hard and limited from above by the complexity of solving a parity game, i.e. in UP ∩ co-UP. For any fragment of fixed alternation depth, in particular alternation- free formulas it is P-complete

The Complexity of Model Checking Higher-Order Fixpoint Logic

Higher-Order Fixpoint Logic (HFL) is a hybrid of the simply typed \lambda-calculus and the modal \lambda-calculus. This makes it a highly expressive temporal logic that is capable of expressing various interesting correctness properties of programs that are not expressible in the modal \lambda-calculus. This paper provides complexity results for its model checking problem. In particular we consider those fragments of HFL built by using only types of bounded order k and arity m. We establish k-fold exponential time completeness for model checking each such fragment. For the upper bound we use fixpoint elimination to obtain reachability games that are singly-exponential in the size of the formula and k-fold exponential in the size of the underlying transition system. These games can be solved in deterministic linear time. As a simple consequence, we obtain an exponential time upper bound on the expression complexity of each such fragment. The lower bound is established by a reduction from the word problem for alternating (k-1)-fold exponential space bounded Turing Machines. Since there are fixed machines of that type whose word problems are already hard with respect to k-fold exponential time, we obtain, as a corollary, k-fold exponential time completeness for the data complexity of our fragments of HFL, provided m exceeds 3. This also yields a hierarchy result in expressive power.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Logical Methods in Computer Scienc

Temporal Logic with Recursion

We introduce extensions of the standard temporal logics CTL and LTL with a recursion operator that takes propositional arguments. Unlike other proposals for modal fixpoint logics of high expressive power, we obtain logics that retain some of the appealing pragmatic advantages of CTL and LTL, yet have expressive power beyond that of the modal ?-calculus or MSO. We advocate these logics by showing how the recursion operator can be used to express interesting non-regular properties. We also study decidability and complexity issues of the standard decision problems

Model Checking Timed Recursive CTL

We introduce Timed Recursive CTL, a merger of two extensions of the well-known branching-time logic CTL: Timed CTL is interpreted over real-time systems like timed automata; Recursive CTL introduces a powerful recursion operator which takes the expressiveness of this logic CTL well beyond that of regular properties. The result is an expressive logic for real-time properties. We show that its model checking problem is decidable over timed automata, namely 2-EXPTIME-complete

The Tail-Recursive Fragment of Timed Recursive CTL

Timed Recursive CTL (TRCTL) was recently proposed as a merger of two extensions of the well-known branching-time logic CTL: Timed CTL on one hand is interpreted over real-time systems like timed automata, and Recursive CTL (RecCTL) on the other hand obtains high expressiveness through the introduction of a recursion operator. Model checking for the resulting logic is known to be 2-EXPTIME-complete. The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility to obtain a fragment of lower complexity without losing too much expressive power. It is obtained by a syntactic property called "tail-recursiveness" that restricts the way that recursive formulas can be built. This restriction is known to decrease the complexity of model checking by half an exponential in the untimed setting. We show that this also works in the real-time world: model checking for the tail-recursive fragment of TRCTL is EXPSPACE-complete. The upper bound is obtained by a standard untiming construction via region graphs, and rests on the known complexity of tail-recursive fragments of higher-order modal logics. The lower bound is established by a reduction from a suitable tiling problem

A Cyclic Proof System for HFL_?

A cyclic proof system allows us to perform inductive reasoning without explicit inductions. We propose a cyclic proof system for HFLN, which is a higher-order predicate logic with natural numbers and alternating fixed-points. Ours is the first cyclic proof system for a higher-order logic, to our knowledge. Due to the presence of higher-order predicates and alternating fixed-points, our cyclic proof system requires a more delicate global condition on cyclic proofs than the original system of Brotherston and Simpson. We prove the decidability of checking the global condition and soundness of this system, and also prove a restricted form of standard completeness for an infinitary variant of our cyclic proof system. A potential application of our cyclic proof system is semi-automated verification of higher-order programs, based on Kobayashi et al.'s recent work on reductions from program verification to HFLN validity checking.Comment: 27 page