195 research outputs found
Logical limit laws for minor-closed classes of graphs
Let be an addable, minor-closed class of graphs. We prove that
the zero-one law holds in monadic second-order logic (MSO) for the random graph
drawn uniformly at random from all {\em connected} graphs in on
vertices, and the convergence law in MSO holds if we draw uniformly at
random from all graphs in on vertices. We also prove analogues
of these results for the class of graphs embeddable on a fixed surface,
provided we restrict attention to first order logic (FO). Moreover, the
limiting probability that a given FO sentence is satisfied is independent of
the surface . We also prove that the closure of the set of limiting
probabilities is always the finite union of at least two disjoint intervals,
and that it is the same for FO and MSO. For the classes of forests and planar
graphs we are able to determine the closure of the set of limiting
probabilities precisely. For planar graphs it consists of exactly 108
intervals, each of length . Finally, we analyse
examples of non-addable classes where the behaviour is quite different. For
instance, the zero-one law does not hold for the random caterpillar on
vertices, even in FO.Comment: minor changes; accepted for publication by JCT
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
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