341,132 research outputs found
Path Checking for MTL and TPTL over Data Words
Metric temporal logic (MTL) and timed propositional temporal logic (TPTL) are
quantitative extensions of linear temporal logic, which are prominent and
widely used in the verification of real-timed systems. It was recently shown
that the path checking problem for MTL, when evaluated over finite timed words,
is in the parallel complexity class NC. In this paper, we derive precise
complexity results for the path-checking problem for MTL and TPTL when
evaluated over infinite data words over the non-negative integers. Such words
may be seen as the behaviours of one-counter machines. For this setting, we
give a complete analysis of the complexity of the path-checking problem
depending on the number of register variables and the encoding of constraint
numbers (unary or binary). As the two main results, we prove that the
path-checking problem for MTL is P-complete, whereas the path-checking problem
for TPTL is PSPACE-complete. The results yield the precise complexity of model
checking deterministic one-counter machines against formulae of MTL and TPTL
Model checking Branching-Time Properties of Multi-Pushdown Systems is Hard
We address the model checking problem for shared memory concurrent programs
modeled as multi-pushdown systems. We consider here boolean programs with a
finite number of threads and recursive procedures. It is well-known that the
model checking problem is undecidable for this class of programs. In this
paper, we investigate the decidability and the complexity of this problem under
the assumption of bounded context-switching defined by Qadeer and Rehof, and of
phase-boundedness proposed by La Torre et al. On the model checking of such
systems against temporal logics and in particular branching time logics such as
the modal -calculus or CTL has received little attention. It is known that
parity games, which are closely related to the modal -calculus, are
decidable for the class of bounded-phase systems (and hence for bounded-context
switching as well), but with non-elementary complexity (Seth). A natural
question is whether this high complexity is inevitable and what are the ways to
get around it. This paper addresses these questions and unfortunately, and
somewhat surprisingly, it shows that branching model checking for MPDSs is
inherently an hard problem with no easy solution. We show that parity games on
MPDS under phase-bounding restriction is non-elementary. Our main result shows
that model checking a context bounded MPDS against a simple fragment of
CTL, consisting of formulas that whose temporal operators come from the set
{\EF, \EX}, has a non-elementary lower bound
Model-checking Quantitative Alternating-time Temporal Logic on One-counter Game Models
We consider quantitative extensions of the alternating-time temporal logics
ATL/ATLs called quantitative alternating-time temporal logics (QATL/QATLs) in
which the value of a counter can be compared to constants using equality,
inequality and modulo constraints. We interpret these logics in one-counter
game models which are infinite duration games played on finite control graphs
where each transition can increase or decrease the value of an unbounded
counter. That is, the state-space of these games are, generally, infinite. We
consider the model-checking problem of the logics QATL and QATLs on one-counter
game models with VASS semantics for which we develop algorithms and provide
matching lower bounds. Our algorithms are based on reductions of the
model-checking problems to model-checking games. This approach makes it quite
simple for us to deal with extensions of the logical languages as well as the
infinite state spaces. The framework generalizes on one hand qualitative
problems such as ATL/ATLs model-checking of finite-state systems,
model-checking of the branching-time temporal logics CTL and CTLs on
one-counter processes and the realizability problem of LTL specifications. On
the other hand the model-checking problem for QATL/QATLs generalizes
quantitative problems such as the fixed-initial credit problem for energy games
(in the case of QATL) and energy parity games (in the case of QATLs). Our
results are positive as we show that the generalizations are not too costly
with respect to complexity. As a byproduct we obtain new results on the
complexity of model-checking CTLs in one-counter processes and show that
deciding the winner in one-counter games with LTL objectives is
2ExpSpace-complete.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
The parameterized space complexity of model-checking bounded variable first-order logic
The parameterized model-checking problem for a class of first-order sentences
(queries) asks to decide whether a given sentence from the class holds true in
a given relational structure (database); the parameter is the length of the
sentence. We study the parameterized space complexity of the model-checking
problem for queries with a bounded number of variables. For each bound on the
quantifier alternation rank the problem becomes complete for the corresponding
level of what we call the tree hierarchy, a hierarchy of parameterized
complexity classes defined via space bounded alternating machines between
parameterized logarithmic space and fixed-parameter tractable time. We observe
that a parameterized logarithmic space model-checker for existential bounded
variable queries would allow to improve Savitch's classical simulation of
nondeterministic logarithmic space in deterministic space .
Further, we define a highly space efficient model-checker for queries with a
bounded number of variables and bounded quantifier alternation rank. We study
its optimality under the assumption that Savitch's Theorem is optimal
On the Complexity of ATL and ATL* Module Checking
Module checking has been introduced in late 1990s to verify open systems,
i.e., systems whose behavior depends on the continuous interaction with the
environment. Classically, module checking has been investigated with respect to
specifications given as CTL and CTL* formulas. Recently, it has been shown that
CTL (resp., CTL*) module checking offers a distinctly different perspective
from the better-known problem of ATL (resp., ATL*) model checking. In
particular, ATL (resp., ATL*) module checking strictly enhances the
expressiveness of both CTL (resp., CTL*) module checking and ATL (resp. ATL*)
model checking. In this paper, we provide asymptotically optimal bounds on the
computational cost of module checking against ATL and ATL*, whose upper bounds
are based on an automata-theoretic approach. We show that module-checking for
ATL is EXPTIME-complete, which is the same complexity of module checking
against CTL. On the other hand, ATL* module checking turns out to be
3EXPTIME-complete, hence exponentially harder than CTL* module checking.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2017, arXiv:1709.0176
Branching-time model checking of one-counter processes
One-counter processes (OCPs) are pushdown processes which operate only on a
unary stack alphabet. We study the computational complexity of model checking
computation tree logic (CTL) over OCPs. A PSPACE upper bound is inherited from
the modal mu-calculus for this problem. First, we analyze the periodic
behaviour of CTL over OCPs and derive a model checking algorithm whose running
time is exponential only in the number of control locations and a syntactic
notion of the formula that we call leftward until depth. Thus, model checking
fixed OCPs against CTL formulas with a fixed leftward until depth is in P. This
generalizes a result of the first author, Mayr, and To for the expression
complexity of CTL's fragment EF. Second, we prove that already over some fixed
OCP, CTL model checking is PSPACE-hard. Third, we show that there already
exists a fixed CTL formula for which model checking of OCPs is PSPACE-hard. To
obtain the latter result, we employ two results from complexity theory: (i)
Converting a natural number in Chinese remainder presentation into binary
presentation is in logspace-uniform NC^1 and (ii) PSPACE is AC^0-serializable.
We demonstrate that our approach can be used to obtain further results. We show
that model-checking CTL's fragment EF over OCPs is hard for P^NP, thus
establishing a matching lower bound and answering an open question of the first
author, Mayr, and To. We moreover show that the following problem is hard for
PSPACE: Given a one-counter Markov decision process, a set of target states
with counter value zero each, and an initial state, to decide whether the
probability that the initial state will eventually reach one of the target
states is arbitrarily close to 1. This improves a previously known lower bound
for every level of the Boolean hierarchy by Brazdil et al
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
- …