Hybrid Branching-Time Logics

Hybrid branching-time logics are introduced as extensions of CTL-like logics with state variables and the downarrow-binder. Following recent work in the linear framework, only logics with a single variable are considered. The expressive power and the complexity of satisfiability of the resulting logics is investigated. As main result, the satisfiability problem for the hybrid versions of several branching-time logics is proved to be 2EXPTIME-complete. These branching-time logics range from strict fragments of CTL to extensions of CTL that can talk about the past and express fairness-properties. The complexity gap relative to CTL is explained by a corresponding succinctness result. To prove the upper bound, the automata-theoretic approach to branching-time logics is extended to hybrid logics, showing that non-emptiness of alternating one-pebble Buchi tree automata is 2EXPTIME-complete.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper was presented at the International Workshop on Hybrid Logics (HyLo 2007

M2-brane Probe Dynamics and Toric Duality

We study the dynamics of a single M2-brane probing toric Calabi-Yau four-fold singularity in the context of the recently proposed M-theory crystal model of AdS4/CFT3 dual pairs. We obtain an effective abelian gauge theory in which the charges of the matter fields are given by the intersection numbers between loops and faces in the crystal. We argue that the probe theory captures certain aspects of the CFT3 even though the true M2-brane CFT is unlikely to be a usual gauge theory. In particular, the moduli space of vacua of the gauge theory coincides precisely with the Calabi-Yau singularity. Toric duality, partial resolution, and a possibility of new RG flows are also discussed.Comment: 50 pages, 24 figures; v2. title changed, abstract and introduction clarified. to appear in Nucl.Phys.