Verifying Recursive Active Documents with Positive Data Tree Rewriting

This paper proposes a data tree-rewriting framework for modeling evolving documents. The framework is close to Guarded Active XML, a platform used for handling XML repositories evolving through web services. We focus on automatic verification of properties of evolving documents that can contain data from an infinite domain. We establish the boundaries of decidability, and show that verification of a {\em positive} fragment that can handle recursive service calls is decidable. We also consider bounded model-checking in our data tree-rewriting framework and show that it is \nexptime-complete

Courcelle's Theorem - A Game-Theoretic Approach

Courcelle's Theorem states that every problem definable in Monadic Second-Order logic can be solved in linear time on structures of bounded treewidth, for example, by constructing a tree automaton that recognizes or rejects a tree decomposition of the structure. Existing, optimized software like the MONA tool can be used to build the corresponding tree automata, which for bounded treewidth are of constant size. Unfortunately, the constants involved can become extremely large - every quantifier alternation requires a power set construction for the automaton. Here, the required space can become a problem in practical applications. In this paper, we present a novel, direct approach based on model checking games, which avoids the expensive power set construction. Experiments with an implementation are promising, and we can solve problems on graphs where the automata-theoretic approach fails in practice.Comment: submitte

Tree-width for first order formulae

We introduce tree-width for first order formulae \phi, fotw(\phi). We show that computing fotw is fixed-parameter tractable with parameter fotw. Moreover, we show that on classes of formulae of bounded fotw, model checking is fixed parameter tractable, with parameter the length of the formula. This is done by translating a formula \phi\ with fotw(\phi)<k into a formula of the k-variable fragment L^k of first order logic. For fixed k, the question whether a given first order formula is equivalent to an L^k formula is undecidable. In contrast, the classes of first order formulae with bounded fotw are fragments of first order logic for which the equivalence is decidable. Our notion of tree-width generalises tree-width of conjunctive queries to arbitrary formulae of first order logic by taking into account the quantifier interaction in a formula. Moreover, it is more powerful than the notion of elimination-width of quantified constraint formulae, defined by Chen and Dalmau (CSL 2005): for quantified constraint formulae, both bounded elimination-width and bounded fotw allow for model checking in polynomial time. We prove that fotw of a quantified constraint formula \phi\ is bounded by the elimination-width of \phi, and we exhibit a class of quantified constraint formulae with bounded fotw, that has unbounded elimination-width. A similar comparison holds for strict tree-width of non-recursive stratified datalog as defined by Flum, Frick, and Grohe (JACM 49, 2002). Finally, we show that fotw has a characterization in terms of a cops and robbers game without monotonicity cost

The Logic of Counting Query Answers

We consider the problem of counting the number of answers to a first-order formula on a finite structure. We present and study an extension of first-order logic in which algorithms for this counting problem can be naturally and conveniently expressed, in senses that are made precise and that are motivated by the wish to understand tractable cases of the counting problem

Solving Problems on Graphs of High Rank-Width

A modulator of a graph G to a specified graph class H is a set of vertices whose deletion puts G into H. The cardinality of a modulator to various tractable graph classes has long been used as a structural parameter which can be exploited to obtain FPT algorithms for a range of hard problems. Here we investigate what happens when a graph contains a modulator which is large but "well-structured" (in the sense of having bounded rank-width). Can such modulators still be exploited to obtain efficient algorithms? And is it even possible to find such modulators efficiently? We first show that the parameters derived from such well-structured modulators are strictly more general than the cardinality of modulators and rank-width itself. Then, we develop an FPT algorithm for finding such well-structured modulators to any graph class which can be characterized by a finite set of forbidden induced subgraphs. We proceed by showing how well-structured modulators can be used to obtain efficient parameterized algorithms for Minimum Vertex Cover and Maximum Clique. Finally, we use well-structured modulators to develop an algorithmic meta-theorem for deciding problems expressible in Monadic Second Order (MSO) logic, and prove that this result is tight in the sense that it cannot be generalized to LinEMSO problems.Comment: Accepted at WADS 201

Time and Parallelizability Results for Parity Games with Bounded Tree and DAG Width

Parity games are a much researched class of games in NP intersect CoNP that are not known to be in P. Consequently, researchers have considered specialised algorithms for the case where certain graph parameters are small. In this paper, we study parity games on graphs with bounded treewidth, and graphs with bounded DAG width. We show that parity games with bounded DAG width can be solved in O(n^(k+3) k^(k + 2) (d + 1)^(3k + 2)) time, where n, k, and d are the size, treewidth, and number of priorities in the parity game. This is an improvement over the previous best algorithm, given by Berwanger et al., which runs in n^O(k^2) time. We also show that, if a tree decomposition is provided, then parity games with bounded treewidth can be solved in O(n k^(k + 5) (d + 1)^(3k + 5)) time. This improves over previous best algorithm, given by Obdrzalek, which runs in O(n d^(2(k+1)^2)) time. Our techniques can also be adapted to show that the problem of solving parity games with bounded treewidth lies in the complexity class NC^2, which is the class of problems that can be efficiently parallelized. This is in stark contrast to the general parity game problem, which is known to be P-hard, and thus unlikely to be contained in NC