Complexity and Expressivity of Branching- and Alternating-Time Temporal Logics with Finitely Many Variables

We show that Branching-time temporal logics CTL and CTL*, as well as Alternating-time temporal logics ATL and ATL*, are as semantically expressive in the language with a single propositional variable as they are in the full language, i.e., with an unlimited supply of propositional variables. It follows that satisfiability for CTL, as well as for ATL, with a single variable is EXPTIME-complete, while satisfiability for CTL*, as well as for ATL*, with a single variable is 2EXPTIME-complete,--i.e., for these logics, the satisfiability for formulas with only one variable is as hard as satisfiability for arbitrary formulas.Comment: Prefinal version of the published pape

Optimal methods for reasoning about actions and plans in multi-agent systems

Cet travail présente une solution au problème du décor inférenciel. Nous réalisons cela en donnant une éducation polynomiale d'un fragment du calcul des situations vers la logique épistémique dynamique (DEL). En suite, une nouvelle méthode de preuve pour DEL, dont la complexité algorithmique est inférieure à celle de la méthode de Reiter pour le calcul de situations, est proposée. Ce travail présente aussi une nouvelle logique pour raisonner sur les actions. Cette logique permet d'exprimer formellement "qu'il existe une suite d'action conduisant au but". L'idée étant que, avec la quantification sur les actions, la planification devient un problème de validité. Une axiomatisation et quelques résultats d'expressivité sont donnés, ainsi qu'une méthode de preuve basée sur les tableaux sémantiques.This work presents a solution to the inferential frame problem. We do so by providing a polynomial reduction from a fragment of situation calculus to espistemic dynamic logic (DEL). Then, a novel proof method for DEL, such that the computational complexity is much lower than that of Retier's proof method for situation caluculs, is proposed. This work also presents a new logic for reasoning about actions. This logic allows to formally express that "there exists a sequence of actions that leads to the goal". The idea is that, with quantification over actions, planning can become a validity problem. An axiomatisation and some expressivity results are provided, as well as a proof method based on sematic tableaux

Listen to me! Public announcements to agents that pay attention - or not

International audienceIn public announcement logic it is assumed that all agents pay attention (listen to/observe) to the announcement. Weaker observational conditions can be modelled in event (action) model logic. In this work, we propose a version of public announcement logic wherein it is encoded in the states of the epistemic model which agents pay attention to the announcement. This logic is called attention-based announcement logic, abbreviated ABAL. We give an axiomatization and prove that complexity of satisfiability is the same as that of public announcement logic, and therefore lower than that of action model logic [2]. We exploit our logic to formalize the concept of joint attention that has been widely discussed in the philosophical and cognitive science literature. Finally, we extend our logic by integrating attention change

A Four-Valued Dynamic Epistemic Logic

Epistemic logic is usually employed to model two aspects of a situation: the factual and the epistemic aspects. Truth, however, is not always attainable, and in many cases we are forced to reason only with whatever information is available to us. In this paper, we will explore a four-valued epistemic logic designed to deal with these situations, where agents have only knowledge about the available information (or evidence), which can be incomplete or conflicting, but not explicitly about facts. This layer of available information or evidence, which is the object of the agents' knowledge, can be seen as a database. By adopting this sceptical posture in our semantics, we prepare the ground for logics where the notion of knowledge-or more appropriately, belief-is entirely based on evidence. The technical results include a set of reduction axioms for public announcements, correspondence proofs, and a complete tableau system. In summary, our contributions are twofold: on the one hand we present an intuition and possible application for many-valued modal logics, and on the other hand we develop a logic that models the dynamics of evidence in a simple and intuitively clear fashion

Automated Synthesis of Tableau Calculi

This paper presents a method for synthesising sound and complete tableau calculi. Given a specification of the formal semantics of a logic, the method generates a set of tableau inference rules that can then be used to reason within the logic. The method guarantees that the generated rules form a calculus which is sound and constructively complete. If the logic can be shown to admit finite filtration with respect to a well-defined first-order semantics then adding a general blocking mechanism provides a terminating tableau calculus. The process of generating tableau rules can be completely automated and produces, together with the blocking mechanism, an automated procedure for generating tableau decision procedures. For illustration we show the workability of the approach for a description logic with transitive roles and propositional intuitionistic logic.Comment: 32 page

Dynamic Tableaux for Dynamic Modal Logics

In this dissertation we present proof systems for several modal logics. These proof systems are based on analytic (or semantic) tableaux. Modal logics are logics for reasoning about possibility, knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and other modalities. Their semantics are almost always based on Saul Kripke’s possible world semantics. In Kripke semantics, models are represented by relational structures or, equivalently, labeled graphs. Syntactic formulas that express statements about knowledge and other modalities are evaluated in terms of such models. This dissertation focuses on modal logics with dynamic operators for public announcements, belief revision, preference upgrades, and so on. These operators are defined in terms of mathematical operations on Kripke models. Thus, for example, a belief revision operator in the syntax would correspond to a belief revision operation on models. The ‘dynamic’ semantics of dynamic modal logics are a clever way of extending languages without compromising on intuitiveness. We present ‘dynamic’ tableau proof systems for these dynamic semantics, with the express aim to make them conceptually simple, easy to use, modular, and extensible. This we do by reflecting the semantics as closely as possible in the components of our tableau system. For instance, dynamic operations on Kripke models have counterpart dynamic relations between tableaux. Soundness, completeness, and decidability are three of the most important properties that a proof system may have. A proof system is sound if and only if any formula for which a proof exists, is true in every model. A proof system is complete if and only if for any formula that is true in all models, a proof exists. A proof system is decidable if and only if any formula can be proved to be a theorem or not a theorem in a finite number of steps. All proof systems in this dissertation are sound, complete, and decidable. Part of our strategy to create modular tableau systems is to delay concerns over decidability until after soundness and completeness have been established. Decidability is attained through the operations of folding and through operations on ‘tableau cascades’, which are graphs of tableaux. Finally, we provide a proof-of-concept implementation of our dynamic tableau system for public announcement logic in the Clojure programming language

Evidence-Based Beliefs in Many-Valued Modal Logics

Rational agents, humans or otherwise, build their beliefs from evidence – a process which we call consolidation. But how should this process be carried out? In this thesis, we study a multi-agent logic of evidence and the question how agents should form beliefs in this logic. The main contributions of this thesis are twofold. First, we present and study a many-valued modal logic, and show how it can be suitable for modelling multi-agent scenarios where each agent has access to some evidence, which in turn can be processed into beliefs. This is a technical and practical contribution to many-valued modal logics. Second, we open new paths for research in the field of evidence logics: we show a new approach based on many-valued logics, we highlight the concept of consolidations and the importance of looking at their dynamic nature, and build a methodology based on rationality postulates to evaluate them

Relation-changing modal logics

Tesis (Doctor en Cs. de la Computación)--Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, 2014.En esta tesis investigamos operadores modales dinámicos que pueden cambiar el modelo durante la evaluación de una fórmula. En particular, extendemos el lenguaje modal básico con modalidades que son capaces de invertir, borrar o agregar pares de elementos relacionados. Estudiamos la versión local de los operadores (es decir,la realización de modificaciones desde el punto de evaluación) y la versión global(cambiar arbitrariamente el modelo). Investigamos varias propiedades de los lenguajes introducidos, desde un punto de vista abstracto. En primer lugar, se introduce la semántica formal de los modificadores de modelo, e inmediatamente se introduce una noción de bisimulación. Las bisimulaciones son una herramienta importante para investigar el poder expresivo de los lenguajes introducidos en esta tesis. Se demostró que todas los lenguajes son incomparables entre sí en términos de poder expresivo (a excepción de los dos versiones de swap, aunque conjeturamos que también ́en son incomparables). Continuamos por investigar el comportamiento computacional de este tipo de operadores. En primer lugar, demostramos que el problema de satisfactibilidad para las versiones locales de las lógicas que cambian la relación que investigamos es indecidible. También demostramos que el problema de model checking es PSPACE-completo para las seis lógicas. Finalmente, investigamos model checking fijando el modelo y fijando la fórmula (problemas conocidos como complejidad de fórmula y complejidad del programa, respectivamente). Es posible también definir métodos para comprobar satisfactibilidad que no necesariamente terminan. Introducimos métodos de tableau para las lógicas que cambian las relaciones y demostramos que todos estos métodos son correctos y completos y mostramos algunos aplicaciones. En la última parte de la tesis, se discute un contexto concreto en el que pueden aplicarse las lógicas modales que cambian la relación: Lógicas Dinámicas Epistémicas (DEL, por las siglas en inglés). Definimos una lógica que cambia la relación capaz de codificar DEL, e investigamos su comportamiento computacional.In this thesis we study dynamic modal operators that can change the model during the evaluation of a formula. In particular, we extend the basic modal language with modalities that are able to swap, delete or add pairs of related elements of the domain. We call the resulting logics Relation-Changing Modal Logics. We study local version of the operators (performing modifications from the evaluation point) and global version (changing arbitrarily edges in the model). We investigate several properties of the given languages, from an abstract point of view. First, we introduce the formal semantics of the model modifiers, afterwards we introduce a notion of bisimulation. Bisimulations are an important tool to investigate the expressive power of the languages introduced in this thesis. We show that all the languages are incomparable among them in terms of expressive power (except for the two versions of swap, which we conjecture are also incomparable). We continue by investigating the computational behaviour of this kind of operators. First, we prove that the satisfiability problem for some of the relation-changing modal logics we investigate is undecidable. Then, we prove that the model checking problem is PSpace-complete for the six logics. Finally, we investigate model checking fixing the model and fixing the formula (problems known as formula and program complexity, respectively). We show that it is possible to define complete but non-terminating methods to check satisfiability. We introduce tableau methods for relation-changing modal logics and we prove that all these methods are sound and complete, and we show some applications. In the last part of the thesis, we discuss a concrete context in which we can apply relation-changing modal logics: Dynamic Epistemic Logics (DEL). We motivate the use of the kind of logics that we investigate in this new framework, and we introduce some examples of DEL. Finally, we define a new relation-changing modal logic that embeds DEL and we investigate its computational behaviour.Fil: Fervari, Raúl Alberto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía, Física; Argentina