1,981 research outputs found
Satisfiability Games for Branching-Time Logics
The satisfiability problem for branching-time temporal logics like CTL*, CTL
and CTL+ has important applications in program specification and verification.
Their computational complexities are known: CTL* and CTL+ are complete for
doubly exponential time, CTL is complete for single exponential time. Some
decision procedures for these logics are known; they use tree automata,
tableaux or axiom systems. In this paper we present a uniform game-theoretic
framework for the satisfiability problem of these branching-time temporal
logics. We define satisfiability games for the full branching-time temporal
logic CTL* using a high-level definition of winning condition that captures the
essence of well-foundedness of least fixpoint unfoldings. These winning
conditions form formal languages of \omega-words. We analyse which kinds of
deterministic {\omega}-automata are needed in which case in order to recognise
these languages. We then obtain a reduction to the problem of solving parity or
B\"uchi games. The worst-case complexity of the obtained algorithms matches the
known lower bounds for these logics. This approach provides a uniform, yet
complexity-theoretically optimal treatment of satisfiability for branching-time
temporal logics. It separates the use of temporal logic machinery from the use
of automata thus preserving a syntactical relationship between the input
formula and the object that represents satisfiability, i.e. a winning strategy
in a parity or B\"uchi game. The games presented here work on a Fischer-Ladner
closure of the input formula only. Last but not least, the games presented here
come with an attempt at providing tool support for the satisfiability problem
of complex branching-time logics like CTL* and CTL+
Hybrid Branching-Time Logics
Hybrid branching-time logics are introduced as extensions of CTL-like logics
with state variables and the downarrow-binder. Following recent work in the
linear framework, only logics with a single variable are considered. The
expressive power and the complexity of satisfiability of the resulting logics
is investigated.
As main result, the satisfiability problem for the hybrid versions of several
branching-time logics is proved to be 2EXPTIME-complete. These branching-time
logics range from strict fragments of CTL to extensions of CTL that can talk
about the past and express fairness-properties. The complexity gap relative to
CTL is explained by a corresponding succinctness result.
To prove the upper bound, the automata-theoretic approach to branching-time
logics is extended to hybrid logics, showing that non-emptiness of alternating
one-pebble Buchi tree automata is 2EXPTIME-complete.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper was presented at the International
Workshop on Hybrid Logics (HyLo 2007
Changing a semantics: opportunism or courage?
The generalized models for higher-order logics introduced by Leon Henkin, and
their multiple offspring over the years, have become a standard tool in many
areas of logic. Even so, discussion has persisted about their technical status,
and perhaps even their conceptual legitimacy. This paper gives a systematic
view of generalized model techniques, discusses what they mean in mathematical
and philosophical terms, and presents a few technical themes and results about
their role in algebraic representation, calibrating provability, lowering
complexity, understanding fixed-point logics, and achieving set-theoretic
absoluteness. We also show how thinking about Henkin's approach to semantics of
logical systems in this generality can yield new results, dispelling the
impression of adhocness. This paper is dedicated to Leon Henkin, a deep
logician who has changed the way we all work, while also being an always open,
modest, and encouraging colleague and friend.Comment: 27 pages. To appear in: The life and work of Leon Henkin: Essays on
his contributions (Studies in Universal Logic) eds: Manzano, M., Sain, I. and
Alonso, E., 201
Decidability Results for the Boundedness Problem
We prove decidability of the boundedness problem for monadic least
fixed-point recursion based on positive monadic second-order (MSO) formulae
over trees. Given an MSO-formula phi(X,x) that is positive in X, it is
decidable whether the fixed-point recursion based on phi is spurious over the
class of all trees in the sense that there is some uniform finite bound for the
number of iterations phi takes to reach its least fixed point, uniformly across
all trees. We also identify the exact complexity of this problem. The proof
uses automata-theoretic techniques. This key result extends, by means of
model-theoretic interpretations, to show decidability of the boundedness
problem for MSO and guarded second-order logic (GSO) over the classes of
structures of fixed finite tree-width. Further model-theoretic transfer
arguments allow us to derive major known decidability results for boundedness
for fragments of first-order logic as well as new ones
Applying Formal Methods to Networking: Theory, Techniques and Applications
Despite its great importance, modern network infrastructure is remarkable for
the lack of rigor in its engineering. The Internet which began as a research
experiment was never designed to handle the users and applications it hosts
today. The lack of formalization of the Internet architecture meant limited
abstractions and modularity, especially for the control and management planes,
thus requiring for every new need a new protocol built from scratch. This led
to an unwieldy ossified Internet architecture resistant to any attempts at
formal verification, and an Internet culture where expediency and pragmatism
are favored over formal correctness. Fortunately, recent work in the space of
clean slate Internet design---especially, the software defined networking (SDN)
paradigm---offers the Internet community another chance to develop the right
kind of architecture and abstractions. This has also led to a great resurgence
in interest of applying formal methods to specification, verification, and
synthesis of networking protocols and applications. In this paper, we present a
self-contained tutorial of the formidable amount of work that has been done in
formal methods, and present a survey of its applications to networking.Comment: 30 pages, submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial
The Complexity of Enriched Mu-Calculi
The fully enriched μ-calculus is the extension of the propositional
μ-calculus with inverse programs, graded modalities, and nominals. While
satisfiability in several expressive fragments of the fully enriched
μ-calculus is known to be decidable and ExpTime-complete, it has recently
been proved that the full calculus is undecidable. In this paper, we study the
fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus that are obtained by dropping at
least one of the additional constructs. We show that, in all fragments obtained
in this way, satisfiability is decidable and ExpTime-complete. Thus, we
identify a family of decidable logics that are maximal (and incomparable) in
expressive power. Our results are obtained by introducing two new automata
models, showing that their emptiness problems are ExpTime-complete, and then
reducing satisfiability in the relevant logics to these problems. The automata
models we introduce are two-way graded alternating parity automata over
infinite trees (2GAPTs) and fully enriched automata (FEAs) over infinite
forests. The former are a common generalization of two incomparable automata
models from the literature. The latter extend alternating automata in a similar
way as the fully enriched μ-calculus extends the standard μ-calculus.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appears in the Proceedings of the
33rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP),
2006. This paper has been selected for a special issue in LMC
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