16 research outputs found
A Finite-Model-Theoretic View on Propositional Proof Complexity
We establish new, and surprisingly tight, connections between propositional
proof complexity and finite model theory. Specifically, we show that the power
of several propositional proof systems, such as Horn resolution, bounded-width
resolution, and the polynomial calculus of bounded degree, can be characterised
in a precise sense by variants of fixed-point logics that are of fundamental
importance in descriptive complexity theory. Our main results are that Horn
resolution has the same expressive power as least fixed-point logic, that
bounded-width resolution captures existential least fixed-point logic, and that
the polynomial calculus with bounded degree over the rationals solves precisely
the problems definable in fixed-point logic with counting. By exploring these
connections further, we establish finite-model-theoretic tools for proving
lower bounds for the polynomial calculus over the rationals and over finite
fields
On the strictness of the quantifier structure hierarchy in first-order logic
We study a natural hierarchy in first-order logic, namely the quantifier
structure hierarchy, which gives a systematic classification of first-order
formulas based on structural quantifier resource. We define a variant of
Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse games that characterizes quantifier classes and use it to
prove that this hierarchy is strict over finite structures, using strategy
compositions. Moreover, we prove that this hierarchy is strict even over
ordered finite structures, which is interesting in the context of descriptive
complexity.Comment: 38 pages, 8 figure
Data Integration on the (Semantic) Web with Rules and Rich Unification
For the last decade a multitude of new data formats for the World Wide Web
have been developed, and a huge amount of heterogeneous semi-structured data
is flourishing online. With the ever increasing number of documents on the
Web, rules have been identified as the means of choice for reasoning about
this
data, transforming and integrating it. Query languages such as SPARQL and rule
languages such as Xcerpt use compound queries that are matched or unified with
semi-structured data. This notion of unification is different from the one
that is known from logic programming engines in that it (i) provides
constructs that allow queries to be incomplete in several ways (ii) in that
variables may have different types, (iii) in that it results in sets of
substitutions for the variables in the query instead of a single substitution
and (iv) in that subsumption between queries is much harder to decide than in
logic programming.
This thesis abstracts from Xcerpt query term simulation, SPARQL graph pattern
matching and XPath XML document matching, and shows that all of them can be
considered as a form of rich unification. Given a set of mappings between
substitution sets of different languages, this abstraction opens up the
possibility for format-versatile querying, i.e. combination of queries in
different formats, or transformation of one format into another format within
a single rule.
To show the superiority of this approach, this thesis introduces an extension
of Xcerpt called Xcrdf, and describes use-cases for the combined querying
and integration of RDF and XML data. With XML being the predominant Web
format, and RDF the predominant Semantic Web format, Xcrdf extends Xcerpt
by a set of RDF query terms and construct terms, including query primitives
for RDF containers collections and reifications. Moreover, Xcrdf includes
an RDF path query language called RPL that is more expressive than previously
proposed polynomial-time RDF path query languages, but can still be evaluated
in polynomial time combined complexity.
Besides the introduction of this framework for data integration based on rich
unification, this thesis extends the theoretical knowledge about Xcerpt in
several ways: We show that Xcerpt simulation unification is decidable, and
give complexity bounds for subsumption in several fragments of Xcerpt query
terms. The proof is based on a set of subsumption monotone query term
transformations, and is only feasible because of the injectivity requirement
on subterms of Xcerpt queries. The proof gives rise to an algorithm for
deciding Xcerpt query term simulation. Moreover, we give a semantics to
locally and weakly stratified Xcerpt programs, but this semantics is
applicable not only to Xcerpt, but to any rule language with rich unification,
including multi-rule SPARQL programs. Finally, we show how Xcerpt grouping
stratification can be reduced to Xcerpt negation stratification, thereby also
introducing the notion of local grouping stratification and weak grouping
stratification
Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures
This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computational Structures, FOSSACS 2020, which took place in Dublin, Ireland, in April 2020, and was held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2020. The 31 regular papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 98 submissions. The papers cover topics such as categorical models and logics; language theory, automata, and games; modal, spatial, and temporal logics; type theory and proof theory; concurrency theory and process calculi; rewriting theory; semantics of programming languages; program analysis, correctness, transformation, and verification; logics of programming; software specification and refinement; models of concurrent, reactive, stochastic, distributed, hybrid, and mobile systems; emerging models of computation; logical aspects of computational complexity; models of software security; and logical foundations of data bases.