294 research outputs found
Decidability Issues for Petri Nets
This is a survey of some decidability results for Petri nets, covering the last three decades. The presentation is structured around decidability of specific properties, various behavioural equivalences and finally the model checking problem for temporal logics
On Role Logic
We present role logic, a notation for describing properties of relational
structures in shape analysis, databases, and knowledge bases. We construct role
logic using the ideas of de Bruijn's notation for lambda calculus, an encoding
of first-order logic in lambda calculus, and a simple rule for implicit
arguments of unary and binary predicates. The unrestricted version of role
logic has the expressive power of first-order logic with transitive closure.
Using a syntactic restriction on role logic formulas, we identify a natural
fragment RL^2 of role logic. We show that the RL^2 fragment has the same
expressive power as two-variable logic with counting C^2 and is therefore
decidable. We present a translation of an imperative language into the
decidable fragment RL^2, which allows compositional verification of programs
that manipulate relational structures. In addition, we show how RL^2 encodes
boolean shape analysis constraints and an expressive description logic.Comment: 20 pages. Our later SAS 2004 result builds on this wor
Programmability of Chemical Reaction Networks
Motivated by the intriguing complexity of biochemical circuitry within individual cells we study Stochastic Chemical Reaction Networks (SCRNs), a formal model that considers a set of chemical reactions acting on a finite number of molecules in a well-stirred solution according to standard chemical kinetics equations. SCRNs have been widely used for describing naturally occurring (bio)chemical systems, and with the advent of synthetic biology they become a promising language for the design of artificial biochemical circuits. Our interest here is the computational power of SCRNs and how they relate to more conventional models of computation. We survey known connections and give new connections between SCRNs and Boolean Logic Circuits, Vector Addition Systems, Petri Nets, Gate Implementability, Primitive Recursive Functions, Register Machines, Fractran, and Turing Machines. A theme to these investigations is the thin line between decidable and undecidable questions about SCRN behavior
A Decidable Class of Nested Iterated Schemata (extended version)
Many problems can be specified by patterns of propositional formulae
depending on a parameter, e.g. the specification of a circuit usually depends
on the number of bits of its input. We define a logic whose formulae, called
"iterated schemata", allow to express such patterns. Schemata extend
propositional logic with indexed propositions, e.g. P_i, P_i+1, P_1, and with
generalized connectives, e.g. /\i=1..n or i=1..n (called "iterations") where n
is an (unbound) integer variable called a "parameter". The expressive power of
iterated schemata is strictly greater than propositional logic: it is even out
of the scope of first-order logic. We define a proof procedure, called DPLL*,
that can prove that a schema is satisfiable for at least one value of its
parameter, in the spirit of the DPLL procedure. However the converse problem,
i.e. proving that a schema is unsatisfiable for every value of the parameter,
is undecidable so DPLL* does not terminate in general. Still, we prove that it
terminates for schemata of a syntactic subclass called "regularly nested". This
is the first non trivial class for which DPLL* is proved to terminate.
Furthermore the class of regularly nested schemata is the first decidable class
to allow nesting of iterations, i.e. to allow schemata of the form /\i=1..n
(/\j=1..n ...).Comment: 43 pages, extended version of "A Decidable Class of Nested Iterated
Schemata", submitted to IJCAR 200
Linear Temporal Logic and Propositional Schemata, Back and Forth (extended version)
This paper relates the well-known Linear Temporal Logic with the logic of
propositional schemata introduced by the authors. We prove that LTL is
equivalent to a class of schemata in the sense that polynomial-time reductions
exist from one logic to the other. Some consequences about complexity are
given. We report about first experiments and the consequences about possible
improvements in existing implementations are analyzed.Comment: Extended version of a paper submitted at TIME 2011: contains proofs,
additional examples & figures, additional comparison between classical
LTL/schemata algorithms up to the provided translations, and an example of
how to do model checking with schemata; 36 pages, 8 figure
On the Invariance of G\"odel's Second Theorem with regard to Numberings
The prevalent interpretation of G\"odel's Second Theorem states that a
sufficiently adequate and consistent theory does not prove its consistency. It
is however not entirely clear how to justify this informal reading, as the
formulation of the underlying mathematical theorem depends on several arbitrary
formalisation choices. In this paper I examine the theorem's dependency
regarding G\"odel numberings. I introduce deviant numberings, yielding
provability predicates satisfying L\"ob's conditions, which result in provable
consistency sentences. According to the main result of this paper however,
these "counterexamples" do not refute the theorem's prevalent interpretation,
since once a natural class of admissible numberings is singled out, invariance
is maintained.Comment: Forthcoming in The Review of Symbolic Logi
Logic Programming as Constructivism
The features of logic programming that
seem unconventional from the viewpoint of classical logic
can be explained in terms of constructivistic logic. We
motivate and propose a constructivistic proof theory of
non-Horn logic programming. Then, we apply this formalization
for establishing results of practical interest.
First, we show that 'stratification can be motivated in a
simple and intuitive way. Relying on similar motivations,
we introduce the larger classes of 'loosely stratified' and
'constructively consistent' programs. Second, we give a
formal basis for introducing quantifiers into queries and
logic programs by defining 'constructively domain
independent* formulas. Third, we extend the Generalized
Magic Sets procedure to loosely stratified and constructively
consistent programs, by relying on a 'conditional
fixpoini procedure
The tree equivalence of linear recursion schemes
In the paper, a complete system of transformation rules
preserving the tree equivalence and a polynomial-time algorithm
deciding the tree equivalence of linear polyadic recursion
schemes are proposed. The algorithm is formulated as a
sequential transformation process which brings together the
schemes in question. In the last step, the tree equivalence
problem for the given schemes is reduced to a global flow
analysis problem which is solved by an efficient marking
algorithm
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