Dynamic Complexity of Parity Exists Queries

Given a graph whose nodes may be coloured red, the parity of the number of red nodes can easily be maintained with first-order update rules in the dynamic complexity framework DynFO of Patnaik and Immerman. Can this be generalised to other or even all queries that are definable in first-order logic extended by parity quantifiers? We consider the query that asks whether the number of nodes that have an edge to a red node is odd. Already this simple query of quantifier structure parity-exists is a major roadblock for dynamically capturing extensions of first-order logic. We show that this query cannot be maintained with quantifier-free first-order update rules, and that variants induce a hierarchy for such update rules with respect to the arity of the maintained auxiliary relations. Towards maintaining the query with full first-order update rules, it is shown that degree-restricted variants can be maintained

Dynamic Complexity of Planar 3-connected Graph Isomorphism

Dynamic Complexity (as introduced by Patnaik and Immerman) tries to express how hard it is to update the solution to a problem when the input is changed slightly. It considers the changes required to some stored data structure (possibly a massive database) as small quantities of data (or a tuple) are inserted or deleted from the database (or a structure over some vocabulary). The main difference from previous notions of dynamic complexity is that instead of treating the update quantitatively by finding the the time/space trade-offs, it tries to consider the update qualitatively, by finding the complexity class in which the update can be expressed (or made). In this setting, DynFO, or Dynamic First-Order, is one of the smallest and the most natural complexity class (since SQL queries can be expressed in First-Order Logic), and contains those problems whose solutions (or the stored data structure from which the solution can be found) can be updated in First-Order Logic when the data structure undergoes small changes. Etessami considered the problem of isomorphism in the dynamic setting, and showed that Tree Isomorphism can be decided in DynFO. In this work, we show that isomorphism of Planar 3-connected graphs can be decided in DynFO+ (which is DynFO with some polynomial precomputation). We maintain a canonical description of 3-connected Planar graphs by maintaining a database which is accessed and modified by First-Order queries when edges are added to or deleted from the graph. We specifically exploit the ideas of Breadth-First Search and Canonical Breadth-First Search to prove the results. We also introduce a novel method for canonizing a 3-connected planar graph in First-Order Logic from Canonical Breadth-First Search Trees

Reachability and Distances under Multiple Changes

Recently it was shown that the transitive closure of a directed graph can be updated using first-order formulas after insertions and deletions of single edges in the dynamic descriptive complexity framework by Dong, Su, and Topor, and Patnaik and Immerman. In other words, Reachability is in DynFO. In this article we extend the framework to changes of multiple edges at a time, and study the Reachability and Distance queries under these changes. We show that the former problem can be maintained in DynFO(+, x) under changes affecting O({log n}/{log log n}) nodes, for graphs with n nodes. If the update formulas may use a majority quantifier then both Reachability and Distance can be maintained under changes that affect O(log^c n) nodes, for fixed c in N. Some preliminary results towards showing that distances are in DynFO are discussed

A Strategy for Dynamic Programs: Start over and Muddle through

In the setting of DynFO, dynamic programs update the stored result of a query whenever the underlying data changes. This update is expressed in terms of first-order logic. We introduce a strategy for constructing dynamic programs that utilises periodic computation of auxiliary data from scratch and the ability to maintain a query for a limited number of change steps. We show that if some program can maintain a query for log n change steps after an AC$^1$-computable initialisation, it can be maintained by a first-order dynamic program as well, i.e., in DynFO. As an application, it is shown that decision and optimisation problems defined by monadic second-order (MSO) formulas are in DynFO, if only change sequences that produce graphs of bounded treewidth are allowed. To establish this result, a Feferman-Vaught-type composition theorem for MSO is established that might be useful in its own right

Dynamic Complexity of Formal Languages

The paper investigates the power of the dynamic complexity classes DynFO, DynQF and DynPROP over string languages. The latter two classes contain problems that can be maintained using quantifier-free first-order updates, with and without auxiliary functions, respectively. It is shown that the languages maintainable in DynPROP exactly are the regular languages, even when allowing arbitrary precomputation. This enables lower bounds for DynPROP and separates DynPROP from DynQF and DynFO. Further, it is shown that any context-free language can be maintained in DynFO and a number of specific context-free languages, for example all Dyck-languages, are maintainable in DynQF. Furthermore, the dynamic complexity of regular tree languages is investigated and some results concerning arbitrary structures are obtained: there exist first-order definable properties which are not maintainable in DynPROP. On the other hand any existential first-order property can be maintained in DynQF when allowing precomputation.Comment: Contains the material presenten at STACS 2009, extendes with proofs and examples which were omitted due lack of spac

Dynamic Complexity under Definable Changes

This paper studies dynamic complexity under definable change operations in the DynFO framework by Patnaik and Immerman. It is shown that for changes definable by parameter-free first-order formulas, all (uniform) AC1 queries can be maintained by first-order dynamic programs. Furthermore, many maintenance results for single-tuple changes are extended to more powerful change operations: (1) The reachability query for undirected graphs is first-order maintainable under single tuple changes and first-order defined insertions, likewise the reachability query for directed acyclic graphs under quantifier-free insertions. (2) Context-free languages are first-order maintainable under EFO-defined changes. These results are complemented by several inexpressibility results, for example, that the reachability query cannot be maintained by quantifier-free programs under definable, quantifier-free deletions

Dynamic Complexity of Parity Exists Queries

Given a graph whose nodes may be coloured red, the parity of the number of red nodes can easily be maintained with first-order update rules in the dynamic complexity framework DynFO of Patnaik and Immerman. Can this be generalised to other or even all queries that are definable in first-order logic extended by parity quantifiers? We consider the query that asks whether the number of nodes that have an edge to a red node is odd. Already this simple query of quantifier structure parity-exists is a major roadblock for dynamically capturing extensions of first-order logic. We show that this query cannot be maintained with quantifier-free first-order update rules, and that variants induce a hierarchy for such update rules with respect to the arity of the maintained auxiliary relations. Towards maintaining the query with full first-order update rules, it is shown that degree-restricted variants can be maintained