1,261 research outputs found
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
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
Two-Way Unary Temporal Logic over Trees
We consider a temporal logic EF+F^-1 for unranked, unordered finite trees.
The logic has two operators: EF\phi, which says "in some proper descendant \phi
holds", and F^-1\phi, which says "in some proper ancestor \phi holds". We
present an algorithm for deciding if a regular language of unranked finite
trees can be expressed in EF+F^-1. The algorithm uses a characterization
expressed in terms of forest algebras.Comment: 29 pages. Journal version of a LICS 07 pape
Some new results on decidability for elementary algebra and geometry
We carry out a systematic study of decidability for theories of (a) real
vector spaces, inner product spaces, and Hilbert spaces and (b) normed spaces,
Banach spaces and metric spaces, all formalised using a 2-sorted first-order
language. The theories for list (a) turn out to be decidable while the theories
for list (b) are not even arithmetical: the theory of 2-dimensional Banach
spaces, for example, has the same many-one degree as the set of truths of
second-order arithmetic.
We find that the purely universal and purely existential fragments of the
theory of normed spaces are decidable, as is the AE fragment of the theory of
metric spaces. These results are sharp of their type: reductions of Hilbert's
10th problem show that the EA fragments for metric and normed spaces and the AE
fragment for normed spaces are all undecidable.Comment: 79 pages, 9 figures. v2: Numerous minor improvements; neater proofs
of Theorems 8 and 29; v3: fixed subscripts in proof of Lemma 3
On Elementary Theories of Ordinal Notation Systems based on Reflection Principles
We consider the constructive ordinal notation system for the ordinal
that were introduced by L.D. Beklemishev. There are fragments of
this system that are ordinal notation systems for the smaller ordinals
(towers of -exponentiations of the height ). This
systems are based on Japaridze's provability logic . They are
closely related with the technique of ordinal analysis of and
fragments of based on iterated reflection principles. We consider
this notation system and it's fragments as structures with the signatures
selected in a natural way. We prove that the full notation system and it's
fragments, for ordinals , have undecidable elementary theories.
We also prove that the fragments of the full system, for ordinals
, have decidable elementary theories. We obtain some results
about decidability of elementary theory, for the ordinal notation systems with
weaker signatures.Comment: 23 page
A Bounded Domain Property for an Expressive Fragment of First-Order Linear Temporal Logic
First-Order Linear Temporal Logic (FOLTL) is well-suited to specify infinite-state systems. However, FOLTL satisfiability is not even semi-decidable, thus preventing automated verification. To address this, a possible track is to constrain specifications to a decidable fragment of FOLTL, but known fragments are too restricted to be usable in practice. In this paper, we exhibit various fragments of increasing scope that provide a pertinent basis for abstract specification of infinite-state systems. We show that these fragments enjoy the Bounded Domain Property (any satisfiable FOLTL formula has a model with a finite, bounded FO domain), which provides a basis for complete, automated verification by reduction to LTL satisfiability. Finally, we present a simple case study illustrating the applicability and limitations of our results
Web ontology representation and reasoning via fragments of set theory
In this paper we use results from Computable Set Theory as a means to
represent and reason about description logics and rule languages for the
semantic web.
Specifically, we introduce the description logic \mathcal{DL}\langle
4LQS^R\rangle(\D)--admitting features such as min/max cardinality constructs
on the left-hand/right-hand side of inclusion axioms, role chain axioms, and
datatypes--which turns out to be quite expressive if compared with
\mathcal{SROIQ}(\D), the description logic underpinning the Web Ontology
Language OWL. Then we show that the consistency problem for
\mathcal{DL}\langle 4LQS^R\rangle(\D)-knowledge bases is decidable by
reducing it, through a suitable translation process, to the satisfiability
problem of the stratified fragment of set theory, involving variables
of four sorts and a restricted form of quantification. We prove also that,
under suitable not very restrictive constraints, the consistency problem for
\mathcal{DL}\langle 4LQS^R\rangle(\D)-knowledge bases is
\textbf{NP}-complete. Finally, we provide a -translation of rules
belonging to the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL)
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