1,338 research outputs found
The First-Order Theory of Sets with Cardinality Constraints is Decidable
We show that the decidability of the first-order theory of the language that
combines Boolean algebras of sets of uninterpreted elements with Presburger
arithmetic operations. We thereby disprove a recent conjecture that this theory
is undecidable. Our language allows relating the cardinalities of sets to the
values of integer variables, and can distinguish finite and infinite sets. We
use quantifier elimination to show the decidability and obtain an elementary
upper bound on the complexity.
Precise program analyses can use our decidability result to verify
representation invariants of data structures that use an integer field to
represent the number of stored elements.Comment: 18 page
A Spatial-Epistemic Logic for Reasoning about Security Protocols
Reasoning about security properties involves reasoning about where the
information of a system is located, and how it evolves over time. While most
security analysis techniques need to cope with some notions of information
locality and knowledge propagation, usually they do not provide a general
language for expressing arbitrary properties involving local knowledge and
knowledge transfer. Building on this observation, we introduce a framework for
security protocol analysis based on dynamic spatial logic specifications. Our
computational model is a variant of existing pi-calculi, while specifications
are expressed in a dynamic spatial logic extended with an epistemic operator.
We present the syntax and semantics of the model and logic, and discuss the
expressiveness of the approach, showing it complete for passive attackers. We
also prove that generic Dolev-Yao attackers may be mechanically determined for
any deterministic finite protocol, and discuss how this result may be used to
reason about security properties of open systems. We also present a
model-checking algorithm for our logic, which has been implemented as an
extension to the SLMC system.Comment: In Proceedings SecCo 2010, arXiv:1102.516
ATLsc with partial observation
Alternating-time temporal logic with strategy contexts (ATLsc) is a powerful
formalism for expressing properties of multi-agent systems: it extends CTL with
strategy quantifiers, offering a convenient way of expressing both
collaboration and antagonism between several agents. Incomplete observation of
the state space is a desirable feature in such a framework, but it quickly
leads to undecidable verification problems. In this paper, we prove that
uniform incomplete observation (where all players have the same observation)
preserves decidability of the model-checking problem, even for very expressive
logics such as ATLsc.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2015, arXiv:1509.0685
Exhaustible sets in higher-type computation
We say that a set is exhaustible if it admits algorithmic universal
quantification for continuous predicates in finite time, and searchable if
there is an algorithm that, given any continuous predicate, either selects an
element for which the predicate holds or else tells there is no example. The
Cantor space of infinite sequences of binary digits is known to be searchable.
Searchable sets are exhaustible, and we show that the converse also holds for
sets of hereditarily total elements in the hierarchy of continuous functionals;
moreover, a selection functional can be constructed uniformly from a
quantification functional. We prove that searchable sets are closed under
intersections with decidable sets, and under the formation of computable images
and of finite and countably infinite products. This is related to the fact,
established here, that exhaustible sets are topologically compact. We obtain a
complete description of exhaustible total sets by developing a computational
version of a topological Arzela--Ascoli type characterization of compact
subsets of function spaces. We also show that, in the non-empty case, they are
precisely the computable images of the Cantor space. The emphasis of this paper
is on the theory of exhaustible and searchable sets, but we also briefly sketch
applications
Changing a semantics: opportunism or courage?
The generalized models for higher-order logics introduced by Leon Henkin, and
their multiple offspring over the years, have become a standard tool in many
areas of logic. Even so, discussion has persisted about their technical status,
and perhaps even their conceptual legitimacy. This paper gives a systematic
view of generalized model techniques, discusses what they mean in mathematical
and philosophical terms, and presents a few technical themes and results about
their role in algebraic representation, calibrating provability, lowering
complexity, understanding fixed-point logics, and achieving set-theoretic
absoluteness. We also show how thinking about Henkin's approach to semantics of
logical systems in this generality can yield new results, dispelling the
impression of adhocness. This paper is dedicated to Leon Henkin, a deep
logician who has changed the way we all work, while also being an always open,
modest, and encouraging colleague and friend.Comment: 27 pages. To appear in: The life and work of Leon Henkin: Essays on
his contributions (Studies in Universal Logic) eds: Manzano, M., Sain, I. and
Alonso, E., 201
Revisiting Decidable Bounded Quantification, via Dinaturality
We use a semantic interpretation to investigate the problem of defining an
expressive but decidable type system with bounded quantification. Typechecking
in the widely studied System Fsub is undecidable thanks to an undecidable
subtyping relation, for which the culprit is the rule for subtyping bounded
quantification. Weaker versions of this rule, allowing decidable subtyping,
have been proposed. One of the resulting type systems (Kernel Fsub) lacks
expressiveness, another (System Fsubtop) lacks the minimal typing property and
thus has no evident typechecking algorithm.
We consider these rules as defining distinct forms of bounded quantification,
one for interpreting type variable abstraction, and the other for type
instantiation. By giving a semantic interpretation for both in terms of
unbounded quantification, using the dinaturality of type instantiation with
respect to subsumption, we show that they can coexist within a single type
system. This does have the minimal typing property and thus a simple
typechecking procedure.
We consider the fragments of this unified type system over types which
contain only one form of bounded quantifier. One of these is equivalent to
Kernel Fsub, while the other can type strictly more terms than System Fsubtop
but the same set of beta-normal terms. We show decidability of typechecking for
this fragment, and thus for System Fsubtop typechecking of beta-normal terms.Comment: In Mathematical Semantics of Programming Languages (MFPS) '2
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