895 research outputs found
Canonical extensions and ultraproducts of polarities
J{\'o}nsson and Tarski's notion of the perfect extension of a Boolean algebra
with operators has evolved into an extensive theory of canonical extensions of
lattice-based algebras. After reviewing this evolution we make two
contributions. First it is shown that the failure of a variety of algebras to
be closed under canonical extensions is witnessed by a particular one of its
free algebras. The size of the set of generators of this algebra can be made a
function of a collection of varieties and is a kind of Hanf number for
canonical closure. Secondly we study the complete lattice of stable subsets of
a polarity structure, and show that if a class of polarities is closed under
ultraproducts, then its stable set lattices generate a variety that is closed
under canonical extensions. This generalises an earlier result of the author
about generation of canonically closed varieties of Boolean algebras with
operators, which was in turn an abstraction of the result that a first-order
definable class of Kripke frames determines a modal logic that is valid in its
so-called canonical frames
Morphisms and Duality for Polarities and Lattices with Operators
Structures based on polarities have been used to provide relational semantics
for propositional logics that are modelled algebraically by non-distributive
lattices with additional operators. This article develops a first order notion
of morphism between polarity-based structures that generalises the theory of
bounded morphisms for Boolean modal logics. It defines a category of such
structures that is contravariantly dual to a given category of lattice-based
algebras whose additional operations preserve either finite joins or finite
meets. Two different versions of the Goldblatt-Thomason theorem are derived in
this setting
Inquisitive bisimulation
Inquisitive modal logic InqML is a generalisation of standard Kripke-style
modal logic. In its epistemic incarnation, it extends standard epistemic logic
to capture not just the information that agents have, but also the questions
that they are interested in. Technically, InqML fits within the family of
logics based on team semantics. From a model-theoretic perspective, it takes us
a step in the direction of monadic second-order logic, as inquisitive modal
operators involve quantification over sets of worlds. We introduce and
investigate the natural notion of bisimulation equivalence in the setting of
InqML. We compare the expressiveness of InqML and first-order logic in the
context of relational structures with two sorts, one for worlds and one for
information states. We characterise inquisitive modal logic, as well as its
multi-agent epistemic S5-like variant, as the bisimulation invariant fragment
of first-order logic over various natural classes of two-sorted structures.
These results crucially require non-classical methods in studying bisimulation
and first-order expressiveness over non-elementary classes of structures,
irrespective of whether we aim for characterisations in the sense of classical
or of finite model theory
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
Succinctness in subsystems of the spatial mu-calculus
In this paper we systematically explore questions of succinctness in modal
logics employed in spatial reasoning. We show that the closure operator,
despite being less expressive, is exponentially more succinct than the
limit-point operator, and that the -calculus is exponentially more
succinct than the equally-expressive tangled limit operator. These results hold
for any class of spaces containing at least one crowded metric space or
containing all spaces based on ordinals below , with the usual
limit operator. We also show that these results continue to hold even if we
enrich the less succinct language with the universal modality
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