The complexity of independence-friendly fixpoint logic

Abstract. We study the complexity of model-checking for the fixpoint extension of Hintikka and Sandu’s independence-friendly logic. We show that this logic captures ExpTime; and by embedding PFP, we show that its combined complexity is ExpSpace-hard, and moreover the logic includes second order logic (on finite structures).

Boolean Dependence Logic and Partially-Ordered Connectives

We introduce a new variant of dependence logic called Boolean dependence logic. In Boolean dependence logic dependence atoms are of the type =(x_1,...,x_n,\alpha), where \alpha is a Boolean variable. Intuitively, with Boolean dependence atoms one can express quantification of relations, while standard dependence atoms express quantification over functions. We compare the expressive power of Boolean dependence logic to dependence logic and first-order logic enriched by partially-ordered connectives. We show that the expressive power of Boolean dependence logic and dependence logic coincide. We define natural syntactic fragments of Boolean dependence logic and show that they coincide with the corresponding fragments of first-order logic enriched by partially-ordered connectives with respect to expressive power. We then show that the fragments form a strict hierarchy.Comment: 41 page

A Logic for True Concurrency

We propose a logic for true concurrency whose formulae predicate about events in computations and their causal dependencies. The induced logical equivalence is hereditary history preserving bisimilarity, and fragments of the logic can be identified which correspond to other true concurrent behavioural equivalences in the literature: step, pomset and history preserving bisimilarity. Standard Hennessy-Milner logic, and thus (interleaving) bisimilarity, is also recovered as a fragment. We also propose an extension of the logic with fixpoint operators, thus allowing to describe causal and concurrency properties of infinite computations. We believe that this work contributes to a rational presentation of the true concurrent spectrum and to a deeper understanding of the relations between the involved behavioural equivalences.Comment: 31 pages, a preliminary version appeared in CONCUR 201

Team building in dependence

Hintikka and Sandu’s Independence-Friendly Logic was introduced as a logic for partially ordered quantification, in which the independence of (existential) quantifiers from previous (universal) quantifiers is written by explicit syntax. It was originally given a semantics by games of imperfect information; Hodges then gave a (necessarily) second-order Tarskian semantics. More recently, Väänänen (2007) has proposed that the many curious features of IF logic can be better understood in his Dependence Logic, in which the (in)dependence of variables is stated in atomic formula, rather than by changing the definition of quantifier; he gives semantics in Tarskian form, via imperfect information games, and via a routine second-order perfect information game. He then defines Team Logic, where classical negation is added to the mix, resulting in a full second-order expressive logic. He remarks that no game semantics appears possible (other than by playing at second order). In this article, we explore an alternative approach to game semantics for DL, where we avoid imperfect information, yet stay locally apparently first-order, by sweeping the second-order information into longer games (infinite games in the case of countable models). Extending the game to Team Logic is not possible in standard games, but we conjecture a move to transfinite games may achieve a ‘natural ’ game for Team Logic