Generating Functions For Kernels of Digraphs (Enumeration & Asymptotics for Nim Games)

In this article, we study directed graphs (digraphs) with a coloring constraint due to Von Neumann and related to Nim-type games. This is equivalent to the notion of kernels of digraphs, which appears in numerous fields of research such as game theory, complexity theory, artificial intelligence (default logic, argumentation in multi-agent systems), 0-1 laws in monadic second order logic, combinatorics (perfect graphs)... Kernels of digraphs lead to numerous difficult questions (in the sense of NP-completeness, #P-completeness). However, we show here that it is possible to use a generating function approach to get new informations: we use technique of symbolic and analytic combinatorics (generating functions and their singularities) in order to get exact and asymptotic results, e.g. for the existence of a kernel in a circuit or in a unicircuit digraph. This is a first step toward a generatingfunctionology treatment of kernels, while using, e.g., an approach "a la Wright". Our method could be applied to more general "local coloring constraints" in decomposable combinatorial structures.Comment: Presented (as a poster) to the conference Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (Vancouver, 2004), electronic proceeding

Logics for Unranked Trees: An Overview

Labeled unranked trees are used as a model of XML documents, and logical languages for them have been studied actively over the past several years. Such logics have different purposes: some are better suited for extracting data, some for expressing navigational properties, and some make it easy to relate complex properties of trees to the existence of tree automata for those properties. Furthermore, logics differ significantly in their model-checking properties, their automata models, and their behavior on ordered and unordered trees. In this paper we present a survey of logics for unranked trees

Courcelle's Theorem - A Game-Theoretic Approach

Courcelle's Theorem states that every problem definable in Monadic Second-Order logic can be solved in linear time on structures of bounded treewidth, for example, by constructing a tree automaton that recognizes or rejects a tree decomposition of the structure. Existing, optimized software like the MONA tool can be used to build the corresponding tree automata, which for bounded treewidth are of constant size. Unfortunately, the constants involved can become extremely large - every quantifier alternation requires a power set construction for the automaton. Here, the required space can become a problem in practical applications. In this paper, we present a novel, direct approach based on model checking games, which avoids the expensive power set construction. Experiments with an implementation are promising, and we can solve problems on graphs where the automata-theoretic approach fails in practice.Comment: submitte

Cores of Countably Categorical Structures

A relational structure is a core, if all its endomorphisms are embeddings. This notion is important for computational complexity classification of constraint satisfaction problems. It is a fundamental fact that every finite structure has a core, i.e., has an endomorphism such that the structure induced by its image is a core; moreover, the core is unique up to isomorphism. Weprove that every \omega -categorical structure has a core. Moreover, every \omega-categorical structure is homomorphically equivalent to a model-complete core, which is unique up to isomorphism, and which is finite or \omega -categorical. We discuss consequences for constraint satisfaction with \omega -categorical templates

The Tree Width of Separation Logic with Recursive Definitions

Separation Logic is a widely used formalism for describing dynamically allocated linked data structures, such as lists, trees, etc. The decidability status of various fragments of the logic constitutes a long standing open problem. Current results report on techniques to decide satisfiability and validity of entailments for Separation Logic(s) over lists (possibly with data). In this paper we establish a more general decidability result. We prove that any Separation Logic formula using rather general recursively defined predicates is decidable for satisfiability, and moreover, entailments between such formulae are decidable for validity. These predicates are general enough to define (doubly-) linked lists, trees, and structures more general than trees, such as trees whose leaves are chained in a list. The decidability proofs are by reduction to decidability of Monadic Second Order Logic on graphs with bounded tree width.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figure