84 research outputs found
On Existential MSO and its Relation to ETH
Impagliazzo et al. proposed a framework, based on the logic fragment defining the complexity class SNP, to identify problems that are equivalent to k-CNF-Sat modulo subexponential-time reducibility (serf-reducibility). The subexponential-time solvability of any of these problems implies the failure of the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH). In this paper, we extend the framework of Impagliazzo et al., and identify a larger set of problems that are equivalent to k-CNF-Sat modulo serf-reducibility. We propose a complexity class, referred to as Linear Monadic NP, that consists of all problems expressible in existential monadic second order logic whose expressions have a linear measure in terms of a complexity parameter, which is usually the universe size of the problem.
This research direction can be traced back to Fagin\u27s celebrated theorem stating that NP coincides with the class of problems expressible in existential second order logic. Monadic NP, a well-studied class in the literature, is the restriction of the aforementioned logic fragment to existential monadic second order logic. The proposed class Linear Monadic NP is then the restriction of Monadic NP to problems whose expressions have linear measure in the complexity parameter.
We show that Linear Monadic NP includes many natural complete problems such as the satisfiability of linear-size circuits, dominating set, independent dominating set, and perfect code. Therefore, for any of these problems, its subexponential-time solvability is equivalent to the failure of ETH. We prove, using logic games, that the aforementioned problems are inexpressible in the monadic fragment of SNP, and hence, are not captured by the framework of Impagliazzo et al. Finally, we show that Feedback Vertex Set is inexpressible in existential monadic second order logic, and hence is not in Linear Monadic NP, and investigate the existence of certain reductions between Feedback Vertex Set (and variants of it) and 3-CNF-Sat
Infinite and Bi-infinite Words with Decidable Monadic Theories
We study word structures of the form where is either
or , is the natural linear ordering on and
is a predicate on . In particular we show:
(a) The set of recursive -words with decidable monadic second order
theories is -complete.
(b) Known characterisations of the -words with decidable monadic
second order theories are transfered to the corresponding question for
bi-infinite words.
(c) We show that such "tame" predicates exist in every Turing degree.
(d) We determine, for , the number of predicates
such that and
are indistinguishable.
Through these results we demonstrate similarities and differences between
logical properties of infinite and bi-infinite words
On the Parameterized Intractability of Monadic Second-Order Logic
One of Courcelle's celebrated results states that if C is a class of graphs
of bounded tree-width, then model-checking for monadic second order logic
(MSO_2) is fixed-parameter tractable (fpt) on C by linear time parameterized
algorithms, where the parameter is the tree-width plus the size of the formula.
An immediate question is whether this is best possible or whether the result
can be extended to classes of unbounded tree-width. In this paper we show that
in terms of tree-width, the theorem cannot be extended much further. More
specifically, we show that if C is a class of graphs which is closed under
colourings and satisfies certain constructibility conditions and is such that
the tree-width of C is not bounded by \log^{84} n then MSO_2-model checking is
not fpt unless SAT can be solved in sub-exponential time. If the tree-width of
C is not poly-logarithmically bounded, then MSO_2-model checking is not fpt
unless all problems in the polynomial-time hierarchy can be solved in
sub-exponential time
Fixed-parameter tractability, definability, and model checking
In this article, we study parameterized complexity theory from the
perspective of logic, or more specifically, descriptive complexity theory.
We propose to consider parameterized model-checking problems for various
fragments of first-order logic as generic parameterized problems and show how
this approach can be useful in studying both fixed-parameter tractability and
intractability. For example, we establish the equivalence between the
model-checking for existential first-order logic, the homomorphism problem for
relational structures, and the substructure isomorphism problem. Our main
tractability result shows that model-checking for first-order formulas is
fixed-parameter tractable when restricted to a class of input structures with
an excluded minor. On the intractability side, for every t >= 0 we prove an
equivalence between model-checking for first-order formulas with t quantifier
alternations and the parameterized halting problem for alternating Turing
machines with t alternations. We discuss the close connection between this
alternation hierarchy and Downey and Fellows' W-hierarchy.
On a more abstract level, we consider two forms of definability, called Fagin
definability and slicewise definability, that are appropriate for describing
parameterized problems. We give a characterization of the class FPT of all
fixed-parameter tractable problems in terms of slicewise definability in finite
variable least fixed-point logic, which is reminiscent of the Immerman-Vardi
Theorem characterizing the class PTIME in terms of definability in least
fixed-point logic.Comment: To appear in SIAM Journal on Computin
Constant Delay Enumeration with FPT-Preprocessing for Conjunctive Queries of Bounded Submodular Width
Marx (STOC 2010, J. ACM 2013) introduced the notion of submodular width of a conjunctive query (CQ) and showed that for any class Phi of Boolean CQs of bounded submodular width, the model-checking problem for Phi on the class of all finite structures is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT). Note that for non-Boolean queries, the size of the query result may be far too large to be computed entirely within FPT time. We investigate the free-connex variant of submodular width and generalise Marx\u27s result to non-Boolean queries as follows: For every class Phi of CQs of bounded free-connex submodular width, within FPT-preprocessing time we can build a data structure that allows to enumerate, without repetition and with constant delay, all tuples of the query result. Our proof builds upon Marx\u27s splitting routine to decompose the query result into a union of results; but we have to tackle the additional technical difficulty to ensure that these can be enumerated efficiently
First-Order Queries on Finite Abelian Groups
We study the computational problem of checking whether a logical sentence is true in a finite abelian group. We prove that model checking first-order sentences on finite abelian groups is fixed-parameter tractable, when parameterized by the size of the sentence. We also prove that model checking monadic second-order sentences on finite abelian groups finitely presented by integer matrices is not fixed-parameter tractable (under standard assumptions in parameterized complexity)
Verified decision procedures for MSO on words based on derivatives of regular expressions
Monadic second-order logic on finite words is a decidable yet expressive logic into which many decision problems can be encoded. Since MSO formulas correspond to regular languages, equivalence of MSO formulas can be reduced to the equivalence of some regular structures (e.g., automata). This paper presents a verified functional decision procedure for MSO formulas that is not based on automata but on regular expressions. Functional languages are ideally suited for this task: regular expressions are data types and functions on them are defined by pattern matching and recursion and are verified by structural induction. Decision procedures for regular expression equivalence have been formalized before, usually based on Brzozowski derivatives. Yet, for a straightforward embedding of MSO formulas into regular expressions, an extension of regular expressions with a projection operation is required. We prove total correctness and completeness of an equivalence checker for regular expressions extended in that way. We also define a language-preserving translation of formulas into regular expressions with respect to two different semantics of MSO. Our results have been formalized and verified in the theorem prover Isabelle. Using Isabelle's code generation facility, this yields purely functional, formally verified programs that decide equivalence of MSO formula
Deleting edges to restrict the size of an epidemic in temporal networks.
Spreading processes on graphs are a natural model for a wide variety of real-world phenomena, including information or behaviour spread over social networks, biological diseases spreading over contact or trade networks, and the potential flow of goods over logistical infrastructure. Often, the networks over which these processes spread are dynamic in nature, and can be modeled with graphs whose structure is subject to discrete changes over time, i.e. with temporal graphs. Here, we consider temporal graphs in which edges are available at specified timesteps, and study the problem of deleting edges from a given temporal graph in order to reduce the number of vertices (temporally) reachable from a given starting point. This could be used to control the spread of a disease, rumour, etc. in a temporal graph. In particular, our aim is to find a temporal subgraph in which a process starting at any single vertex can be transferred to only a limited number of other vertices using a temporally-feasible path (i.e. a path, along which the times of the edge availabilities increase). We introduce a natural deletion problem for temporal graphs and we provide positive and negative results on its computational complexity, both in the traditional and the parameterised sense (subject to various natural parameters), as well as addressing the approximability of this problem
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