1,482 research outputs found
Expansions of MSO by cardinality relations
We study expansions of the Weak Monadic Second Order theory of (N,<) by
cardinality relations, which are predicates R(X1,...,Xn) whose truth value
depends only on the cardinality of the sets X1, ...,Xn. We first provide a
(definable) criterion for definability of a cardinality relation in (N,<), and
use it to prove that for every cardinality relation R which is not definable in
(N,<), there exists a unary cardinality relation which is definable in (N,<,R)
and not in (N,<). These results resemble Muchnik and Michaux-Villemaire
theorems for Presburger Arithmetic. We prove then that + and x are definable in
(N,<,R) for every cardinality relation R which is not definable in (N,<). This
implies undecidability of the WMSO theory of (N,<,R). We also consider the
related satisfiability problem for the class of finite orderings, namely the
question whether an MSO sentence in the language {<,R} admits a finite model M
where < is interpreted as a linear ordering, and R as the restriction of some
(fixed) cardinality relation to the domain of M. We prove that this problem is
undecidable for every cardinality relation R which is not definable in (N,<).Comment: to appear in LMC
Adding modular predicates to first-order fragments
We investigate the decidability of the definability problem for fragments of
first order logic over finite words enriched with modular predicates. Our
approach aims toward the most generic statements that we could achieve, which
successfully covers the quantifier alternation hierarchy of first order logic
and some of its fragments. We obtain that deciding this problem for each level
of the alternation hierarchy of both first order logic and its two-variable
fragment when equipped with all regular numerical predicates is not harder than
deciding it for the corresponding level equipped with only the linear order and
the successor. For two-variable fragments we also treat the case of the
signature containing only the order and modular predicates.Relying on some
recent results, this proves the decidability for each level of the alternation
hierarchy of the two-variable first order fragmentwhile in the case of the
first order logic the question remains open for levels greater than two.The
main ingredients of the proofs are syntactic transformations of first order
formulas as well as the algebraic framework of finite categories
The Church Synthesis Problem with Parameters
For a two-variable formula ψ(X,Y) of Monadic Logic of Order (MLO) the
Church Synthesis Problem concerns the existence and construction of an operator
Y=F(X) such that ψ(X,F(X)) is universally valid over Nat.
B\"{u}chi and Landweber proved that the Church synthesis problem is
decidable; moreover, they showed that if there is an operator F that solves the
Church Synthesis Problem, then it can also be solved by an operator defined by
a finite state automaton or equivalently by an MLO formula. We investigate a
parameterized version of the Church synthesis problem. In this version ψ
might contain as a parameter a unary predicate P. We show that the Church
synthesis problem for P is computable if and only if the monadic theory of
is decidable. We prove that the B\"{u}chi-Landweber theorem can be
extended only to ultimately periodic parameters. However, the MLO-definability
part of the B\"{u}chi-Landweber theorem holds for the parameterized version of
the Church synthesis problem
First Order Theories of Some Lattices of Open Sets
We show that the first order theory of the lattice of open sets in some
natural topological spaces is -equivalent to second order arithmetic. We
also show that for many natural computable metric spaces and computable domains
the first order theory of the lattice of effectively open sets is undecidable.
Moreover, for several important spaces (e.g., , , and the
domain ) this theory is -equivalent to first order arithmetic
The Church Problem for Countable Ordinals
A fundamental theorem of Buchi and Landweber shows that the Church synthesis
problem is computable. Buchi and Landweber reduced the Church Problem to
problems about ω-games and used the determinacy of such games as one of
the main tools to show its computability. We consider a natural generalization
of the Church problem to countable ordinals and investigate games of arbitrary
countable length. We prove that determinacy and decidability parts of the
Bu}chi and Landweber theorem hold for all countable ordinals and that its full
extension holds for all ordinals < \omega\^\omega
What's Decidable About Sequences?
We present a first-order theory of sequences with integer elements,
Presburger arithmetic, and regular constraints, which can model significant
properties of data structures such as arrays and lists. We give a decision
procedure for the quantifier-free fragment, based on an encoding into the
first-order theory of concatenation; the procedure has PSPACE complexity. The
quantifier-free fragment of the theory of sequences can express properties such
as sortedness and injectivity, as well as Boolean combinations of periodic and
arithmetic facts relating the elements of the sequence and their positions
(e.g., "for all even i's, the element at position i has value i+3 or 2i"). The
resulting expressive power is orthogonal to that of the most expressive
decidable logics for arrays. Some examples demonstrate that the fragment is
also suitable to reason about sequence-manipulating programs within the
standard framework of axiomatic semantics.Comment: Fixed a few lapses in the Mergesort exampl
Diophantine Undecidability of Holomorphy Rings of Function Fields of Characteristic 0
Let be a one-variable function field over a field of constants of
characteristic 0. Let be a holomorphy subring of , not equal to . We
prove the following undecidability results for : If is recursive, then
Hilbert's Tenth Problem is undecidable in . In general, there exist
such that there is no algorithm to tell whether a
polynomial equation with coefficients in \Q(x_1,...,x_n) has solutions in
.Comment: This version contains minor revisions and will appear in Annales de l
Institut Fourie
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