Semantics of Input-Consuming Logic Programs

Input-consuming programs are logic programs with an additional restriction on the selectability (actually, on the resolvability) of atoms. this class of programs arguably allows to model logic programs employing a dynamic selection rule and constructs such as delay declarations: as shown also in [5], a large number of them are actually input-consuming. \ud in this paper we show that - under some syntactic restrictions - the tex2html_wrap_inline117-semantics of a program is correct and fully abstract also for input-consuming programs. this allows us to conclude that for a large class of programs employing delay declarations there exists a model-theoretic semantics which is equivalent to the operational one

A Denotational Semantics for First-Order Logic

In Apt and Bezem [AB99] (see cs.LO/9811017) we provided a computational interpretation of first-order formulas over arbitrary interpretations. Here we complement this work by introducing a denotational semantics for first-order logic. Additionally, by allowing an assignment of a non-ground term to a variable we introduce in this framework logical variables. The semantics combines a number of well-known ideas from the areas of semantics of imperative programming languages and logic programming. In the resulting computational view conjunction corresponds to sequential composition, disjunction to ``don't know'' nondeterminism, existential quantification to declaration of a local variable, and negation to the ``negation as finite failure'' rule. The soundness result shows correctness of the semantics with respect to the notion of truth. The proof resembles in some aspects the proof of the soundness of the SLDNF-resolution.Comment: 17 pages. Invited talk at the Computational Logic Conference (CL 2000). To appear in Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Scienc

Hybrid Rules with Well-Founded Semantics

A general framework is proposed for integration of rules and external first order theories. It is based on the well-founded semantics of normal logic programs and inspired by ideas of Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) and constructive negation for logic programs. Hybrid rules are normal clauses extended with constraints in the bodies; constraints are certain formulae in the language of the external theory. A hybrid program is a pair of a set of hybrid rules and an external theory. Instances of the framework are obtained by specifying the class of external theories, and the class of constraints. An example instance is integration of (non-disjunctive) Datalog with ontologies formalized as description logics. The paper defines a declarative semantics of hybrid programs and a goal-driven formal operational semantics. The latter can be seen as a generalization of SLS-resolution. It provides a basis for hybrid implementations combining Prolog with constraint solvers. Soundness of the operational semantics is proven. Sufficient conditions for decidability of the declarative semantics, and for completeness of the operational semantics are given

Surface Instabilities and Magnetic Soft Matter

We report on the formation of surface instabilities in a layer of thermoreversible ferrogel when exposed to a vertical magnetic field. Both static and time dependent magnetic fields are employed. Under variations of temperature, the viscoelastic properties of our soft magnetic matter can be tuned. Stress relaxation experiments unveil a stretched exponential scaling of the shear modulus, with an exponent of beta=1/3. The resulting magnetic threshold for the formation of Rosensweig-cusps is measured for different temperatures, and compared with theoretical predictions by Bohlius et. al. in J. Phys.: Condens. Matter., 2006, 18, 2671-2684.Comment: accepted to Soft Matte

Using global analysis, partial specifications, and an extensible assertion language for program validation and debugging

We discuss a framework for the application of abstract interpretation as an aid during program development, rather than in the more traditional application of program optimization. Program validation and detection of errors is first performed statically by comparing (partial) specifications written in terms of assertions against information obtained from (global) static analysis of the program. The results of this process are expressed in the user assertion language. Assertions (or parts of assertions) which cannot be checked statically are translated into run-time tests. The framework allows the use of assertions to be optional. It also allows using very general properties in assertions, beyond the predefined set understandable by the static analyzer and including properties defined by user programs. We also report briefly on an implementation of the framework. The resulting tool generates and checks assertions for Prolog, CLP(R), and CHIP/CLP(fd) programs, and integrates compile-time and run-time checking in a uniform way. The tool allows using properties such as types, modes, non-failure, determinacy, and computational cost, and can treat modules separately, performing incremental analysis

On completeness of logic programs

Program correctness (in imperative and functional programming) splits in logic programming into correctness and completeness. Completeness means that a program produces all the answers required by its specification. Little work has been devoted to reasoning about completeness. This paper presents a few sufficient conditions for completeness of definite programs. We also study preserving completeness under some cases of pruning of SLD-trees (e.g. due to using the cut). We treat logic programming as a declarative paradigm, abstracting from any operational semantics as far as possible. We argue that the proposed methods are simple enough to be applied, possibly at an informal level, in practical Prolog programming. We point out importance of approximate specifications.Comment: 20 page

Independence in CLP Languages

Studying independence of goals has proven very useful in the context of logic programming. In particular, it has provided a formal basis for powerful automatic parallelization tools, since independence ensures that two goals may be evaluated in parallel while preserving correctness and eciency. We extend the concept of independence to constraint logic programs (CLP) and prove that it also ensures the correctness and eciency of the parallel evaluation of independent goals. Independence for CLP languages is more complex than for logic programming as search space preservation is necessary but no longer sucient for ensuring correctness and eciency. Two additional issues arise. The rst is that the cost of constraint solving may depend upon the order constraints are encountered. The second is the need to handle dynamic scheduling. We clarify these issues by proposing various types of search independence and constraint solver independence, and show how they can be combined to allow dierent optimizations, from parallelism to intelligent backtracking. Sucient conditions for independence which can be evaluated \a priori" at run-time are also proposed. Our study also yields new insights into independence in logic programming languages. In particular, we show that search space preservation is not only a sucient but also a necessary condition for ensuring correctness and eciency of parallel execution