On the Complexity of Existential Positive Queries

We systematically investigate the complexity of model checking the existential positive fragment of first-order logic. In particular, for a set of existential positive sentences, we consider model checking where the sentence is restricted to fall into the set; a natural question is then to classify which sentence sets are tractable and which are intractable. With respect to fixed-parameter tractability, we give a general theorem that reduces this classification question to the corresponding question for primitive positive logic, for a variety of representations of structures. This general theorem allows us to deduce that an existential positive sentence set having bounded arity is fixed-parameter tractable if and only if each sentence is equivalent to one in bounded-variable logic. We then use the lens of classical complexity to study these fixed-parameter tractable sentence sets. We show that such a set can be NP-complete, and consider the length needed by a translation from sentences in such a set to bounded-variable logic; we prove superpolynomial lower bounds on this length using the theory of compilability, obtaining an interesting type of formula size lower bound. Overall, the tools, concepts, and results of this article set the stage for the future consideration of the complexity of model checking on more expressive logics

On the complexity of Existential Positive Queries

We systematically investigate the complexity of model checking the existential positive fragment of first-order logic. In particular, for a set of existential positive sentences, we consider model checking where the sentence is restricted to fall into the set; a natural question is then to classify which sentence sets are tractable and which are intractable. With respect to fixed-parameter tractability, we give a general theorem that reduces this classification question to the corresponding question for primitive positive logic, for a variety of representations of structures. This general theorem allows us to deduce that an existential positive sentence set having bounded arity is fixed-parameter tractable if and only if each sentence is equivalent to one in bounded-variable logic. We then use the lens of classical complexity to study these fixed-parameter tractable sentence sets. We show that such a set can be NP-complete, and consider the length needed by a translation from sentences in such a set to bounded-variable logic; we prove superpolynomial lower bounds on this length using the theory of compilability, obtaining an interesting type of formula size lower bound. Overall, the tools, concepts, and results of this article set the stage for the future consideration of the complexity of model checking on more expressive logics

Counting Answers to Existential Positive Queries: A Complexity Classification

Existential positive formulas form a fragment of first-order logic that includes and is semantically equivalent to unions of conjunctive queries, one of the most important and well-studied classes of queries in database theory. We consider the complexity of counting the number of answers to existential positive formulas on finite structures and give a trichotomy theorem on query classes, in the setting of bounded arity. This theorem generalizes and unifies several known results on the complexity of conjunctive queries and unions of conjunctive queries.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1501.0719

Towards Efficient Reasoning under Guarded-based Disjunctive Existential Rules

International audienceThe complete picture of the complexity of answering (unions of) conjunctive queries under the main guarded-based classes of disjunc- tive existential rules has been recently settled. It has been shown that the problem is very hard, namely 2ExpTime-complete, even for fixed sets of rules expressed in lightweight formalisms. This gives rise to the question whether its complexity can be reduced by restricting the query language. Several subclasses of conjunctive queries have been proposed with the aim of reducing the complexity of classical database problems such as query evaluation and query containment. Three of the most prominent subclasses of this kind are queries of bounded hypertree-width, queries of bounded treewidth and acyclic queries. The central objective of the present paper is to understand whether the above query languages have a positive impact on the complexity of query answering under the main guarded-based classes of disjunctive existential rules. We show that (unions of) conjunctive queries of bounded hypertree- width and of bounded treewidth do not reduce the complexity of our problem, even if we focus on predicates of bounded arity, or on fixed sets of disjunctive existential rules. Regarding acyclic queries, although our problem remains 2ExpTime-complete in general, in some relevant set- tings the complexity reduces to ExpTime-complete; in fact, this requires to bound the arity of the predicates, and for some expressive guarded- based formalisms, to fix the set of rules

Tree-like Queries in OWL 2 QL: Succinctness and Complexity Results

This paper investigates the impact of query topology on the difficulty of answering conjunctive queries in the presence of OWL 2 QL ontologies. Our first contribution is to clarify the worst-case size of positive existential (PE), non-recursive Datalog (NDL), and first-order (FO) rewritings for various classes of tree-like conjunctive queries, ranging from linear queries to bounded treewidth queries. Perhaps our most surprising result is a superpolynomial lower bound on the size of PE-rewritings that holds already for linear queries and ontologies of depth 2. More positively, we show that polynomial-size NDL-rewritings always exist for tree-shaped queries with a bounded number of leaves (and arbitrary ontologies), and for bounded treewidth queries paired with bounded depth ontologies. For FO-rewritings, we equate the existence of polysize rewritings with well-known problems in Boolean circuit complexity. As our second contribution, we analyze the computational complexity of query answering and establish tractability results (either NL- or LOGCFL-completeness) for a range of query-ontology pairs. Combining our new results with those from the literature yields a complete picture of the succinctness and complexity landscapes for the considered classes of queries and ontologies.Comment: This is an extended version of a paper accepted at LICS'15. It contains both succinctness and complexity results and adopts FOL notation. The appendix contains proofs that had to be omitted from the conference version for lack of space. The previous arxiv version (a long version of our DL'14 workshop paper) only contained the succinctness results and used description logic notatio

The combined approach to ontology-based data access

The use of ontologies for accessing data is one of the most exciting new applications of description logics in databases and other information systems. A realistic way of realising sufficiently scalable ontology- based data access in practice is by reduction to querying relational databases. In this paper, we describe the combined approach, which incorporates the information given by the ontology into the data and employs query rewriting to eliminate spurious answers. We illustrate this approach for ontologies given in the DL-Lite family of description logics and briefly discuss the results obtained for the EL family

The Logic of Counting Query Answers

We consider the problem of counting the number of answers to a first-order formula on a finite structure. We present and study an extension of first-order logic in which algorithms for this counting problem can be naturally and conveniently expressed, in senses that are made precise and that are motivated by the wish to understand tractable cases of the counting problem

Exponential Lower Bounds and Separation for Query Rewriting

We establish connections between the size of circuits and formulas computing monotone Boolean functions and the size of first-order and nonrecursive Datalog rewritings for conjunctive queries over OWL 2 QL ontologies. We use known lower bounds and separation results from circuit complexity to prove similar results for the size of rewritings that do not use non-signature constants. For example, we show that, in the worst case, positive existential and nonrecursive Datalog rewritings are exponentially longer than the original queries; nonrecursive Datalog rewritings are in general exponentially more succinct than positive existential rewritings; while first-order rewritings can be superpolynomially more succinct than positive existential rewritings