Weak Alternating Timed Automata

Alternating timed automata on infinite words are considered. The main result is a characterization of acceptance conditions for which the emptiness problem for these automata is decidable. This result implies new decidability results for fragments of timed temporal logics. It is also shown that, unlike for MITL, the characterisation remains the same even if no punctual constraints are allowed

A temporal logic for micro- and macro-step-based real-time systems: Foundations and applications

Many systems include components interacting with each other that evolve at possibly very different speeds. To deal with this situation many formal models adopt the abstraction of “zero-time transitions”, which do not consume time. These, however, have several drawbacks in terms of naturalness and logic consistency, as a system is modeled to be in different states at the same time. We propose a novel approach that exploits concepts from non-standard analysis and pairs them with the traditional “next” operator of temporal logic to introduce a notion of micro- and macro-steps; our approach is enacted in an extension of the TRIO metric temporal logic, called X-TRIO. We study the expressiveness and decidability properties of the new logic. Decidability is achieved through translation of a meaningful subset of X-TRIO into Linear Temporal Logic, a traditional way to support automated verification. We illustrate the usefulness and the generality of our approach by applying it to provide a formal semantics of timed Petri nets, which allows for their automated verification. We also give an overview of a formal semantics of Stateflow/Simulink diagrams, defined in terms of X-TRIO, which has been applied to the automated verification of a robotic cell

Max-plus algebra in the history of discrete event systems

This paper is a survey of the history of max-plus algebra and its role in the field of discrete event systems during the last three decades. It is based on the perspective of the authors but it covers a large variety of topics, where max-plus algebra plays a key role

Modeling Time in Computing: A Taxonomy and a Comparative Survey

The increasing relevance of areas such as real-time and embedded systems, pervasive computing, hybrid systems control, and biological and social systems modeling is bringing a growing attention to the temporal aspects of computing, not only in the computer science domain, but also in more traditional fields of engineering. This article surveys various approaches to the formal modeling and analysis of the temporal features of computer-based systems, with a level of detail that is suitable also for non-specialists. In doing so, it provides a unifying framework, rather than just a comprehensive list of formalisms. The paper first lays out some key dimensions along which the various formalisms can be evaluated and compared. Then, a significant sample of formalisms for time modeling in computing are presented and discussed according to these dimensions. The adopted perspective is, to some extent, historical, going from "traditional" models and formalisms to more modern ones.Comment: More typos fixe

On Frequency LTL in Probabilistic Systems

We study frequency linear-time temporal logic (fLTL) which extends the linear-time temporal logic (LTL) with a path operator $G^p$ expressing that on a path, certain formula holds with at least a given frequency p, thus relaxing the semantics of the usual G operator of LTL. Such logic is particularly useful in probabilistic systems, where some undesirable events such as random failures may occur and are acceptable if they are rare enough. Frequency-related extensions of LTL have been previously studied by several authors, where mostly the logic is equipped with an extended "until" and "globally" operator, leading to undecidability of most interesting problems. For the variant we study, we are able to establish fundamental decidability results. We show that for Markov chains, the problem of computing the probability with which a given fLTL formula holds has the same complexity as the analogous problem for LTL. We also show that for Markov decision processes the problem becomes more delicate, but when restricting the frequency bound $p$ to be 1 and negations not to be outside any $G^p$ operator, we can compute the maximum probability of satisfying the fLTL formula. This can be again performed with the same time complexity as for the ordinary LTL formulas.Comment: A paper presented at CONCUR 2015, with appendi

Master index

Pla general, del mural ceràmic que decora una de les parets del vestíbul de la Facultat de Química de la UB. El mural representa diversos símbols relacionats amb la química

Using Model Theory to Find Decidable and Tractable Description Logics with Concrete Domains

Concrete domains have been introduced in the area of Description Logic (DL) to enable reference to concrete objects (such as numbers) and predefined predicates on these objects (such as numerical comparisons) when defining concepts. Unfortunately, in the presence of general concept inclusions (GCIs), which are supported by all modern DL systems, adding concrete domains may easily lead to undecidability. To regain decidability of the DL ALC in the presence of GCIs, quite strong restrictions, called ω-admissibility, were imposed on the concrete domain. On the one hand, we generalize the notion of ω-admissibility from concrete domains with only binary predicates to concrete domains with predicates of arbitrary arity. On the other hand, we relate ω-admissibility to well-known notions from model theory. In particular, we show that finitely bounded homogeneous structures yield ω-admissible concrete domains. This allows us to show ω-admissibility of concrete domains using existing results from model theory. When integrating concrete domains into lightweight DLs of the EL family, achieving decidability of reasoning is not enough. One wants the resulting DL to be tractable. This can be achieved by using so-called p-admissible concrete domains and restricting the interaction between the DL and the concrete domain. We investigate p-admissibility from an algebraic point of view. Again, this yields strong algebraic tools for demonstrating p-admissibility. In particular, we obtain an expressive numerical p-admissible concrete domain based on the rational numbers. Although ω-admissibility and p-admissibility are orthogonal conditions that are almost exclusive, our algebraic characterizations of these two properties allow us to locate an infinite class of p-admissible concrete domains whose integration into ALC yields decidable DLs. DL systems that can handle concrete domains allow their users to employ a fixed set of predicates of one or more fixed concrete domains when modelling concepts. They do not provide their users with means for defining new predicates, let alone new concrete domains. The good news is that finitely bounded homogeneous structures offer precisely that. We show that integrating concrete domains based on finitely bounded homogeneous structures into ALC yields decidable DLs even if we allow predicates specified by first-order formulas. This class of structures also provides effective means for defining new ω-admissible concrete domains with at most binary predicates. The bad news is that defining ω-admissible concrete domains with predicates of higher arities is computationally hard. We obtain two new lower bounds for this meta-problem, but leave its decidability open. In contrast, we prove that there is no algorithm that would facilitate defining p-admissible concrete domains already for binary signatures.:1. Introduction . . . 1 2. Preliminaries . . . 5 3. Description Logics with Concrete Domains . . . 9 3.1. Basic definitions and undecidability results . . . 9 3.2. Decidable and tractable DLs with concrete domains . . . 16 4. A Model-Theoretic Analysis of ω-Admissibility . . . 23 4.1. Homomorphism ω-compactness via ω-categoricity . . . 23 4.2. Patchworks via homogeneity . . . 24 4.3. JDJEPD via decomposition into orbits . . . 27 4.4. Upper bounds via finite boundedness . . . 28 4.5. ω-admissible finitely bounded homogeneous structures . . . 32 4.6. ω-admissible homogeneous cores with a decidable CSP . . . 34 4.7. Coverage of the developed sufficient conditions . . . 36 4.8. Closure properties: homogeneity & finite boundedness . . . 39 5. A Model-Theoretic Analysis of p-Admissibility . . . 47 5.1. Convexity via square embeddings . . . 47 5.2. Convex ω-categorical structures . . . 50 5.3. Convex numerical structures . . . 52 5.4. Ages defined by forbidden substructures . . . 54 5.5. Ages defined by forbidden homomorphic images . . . 56 5.6. (Non-)closure properties of convexity . . . 59 6. Towards user-definable concrete domains . . . 61 6.1. A proof-theoretic perspective . . . 65 6.2. Universal Horn sentences and the JEP . . . 66 6.3. Universal sentences and the AP: the Horn case . . . 77 6.4. Universal sentences and the AP: the general case . . . 90 7. Conclusion . . . 99 7.1. Contributions and future outlook . . . 99 A. Concrete Domains without Equality . . . 103 Bibliography . . . 107 List of figures . . . 115 Alphabetical Index . . . 11

Proceedings of JAC 2010. Journées Automates Cellulaires

The second Symposium on Cellular Automata “Journ´ees Automates Cellulaires” (JAC 2010) took place in Turku, Finland, on December 15-17, 2010. The first two conference days were held in the Educarium building of the University of Turku, while the talks of the third day were given onboard passenger ferry boats in the beautiful Turku archipelago, along the route Turku–Mariehamn–Turku. The conference was organized by FUNDIM, the Fundamentals of Computing and Discrete Mathematics research center at the mathematics department of the University of Turku. The program of the conference included 17 submitted papers that were selected by the international program committee, based on three peer reviews of each paper. These papers form the core of these proceedings. I want to thank the members of the program committee and the external referees for the excellent work that have done in choosing the papers to be presented in the conference. In addition to the submitted papers, the program of JAC 2010 included four distinguished invited speakers: Michel Coornaert (Universit´e de Strasbourg, France), Bruno Durand (Universit´e de Provence, Marseille, France), Dora Giammarresi (Universit` a di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy) and Martin Kutrib (Universit¨at Gie_en, Germany). I sincerely thank the invited speakers for accepting our invitation to come and give a plenary talk in the conference. The invited talk by Bruno Durand was eventually given by his co-author Alexander Shen, and I thank him for accepting to make the presentation with a short notice. Abstracts or extended abstracts of the invited presentations appear in the first part of this volume. The program also included several informal presentations describing very recent developments and ongoing research projects. I wish to thank all the speakers for their contribution to the success of the symposium. I also would like to thank the sponsors and our collaborators: the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, the French National Research Agency project EMC (ANR-09-BLAN-0164), Turku Centre for Computer Science, the University of Turku, and Centro Hotel. Finally, I sincerely thank the members of the local organizing committee for making the conference possible. These proceedings are published both in an electronic format and in print. The electronic proceedings are available on the electronic repository HAL, managed by several French research agencies. The printed version is published in the general publications series of TUCS, Turku Centre for Computer Science. We thank both HAL and TUCS for accepting to publish the proceedings.Siirretty Doriast