30 research outputs found
Tree Languages Defined in First-Order Logic with One Quantifier Alternation
We study tree languages that can be defined in \Delta_2 . These are tree
languages definable by a first-order formula whose quantifier prefix is forall
exists, and simultaneously by a first-order formula whose quantifier prefix is
. For the quantifier free part we consider two signatures, either the
descendant relation alone or together with the lexicographical order relation
on nodes. We provide an effective characterization of tree and forest languages
definable in \Delta_2 . This characterization is in terms of algebraic
equations. Over words, the class of word languages definable in \Delta_2 forms
a robust class, which was given an effective algebraic characterization by Pin
and Weil
Thin MSO with a Probabilistic Path Quantifier
This paper is about a variant of MSO on infinite trees where:
- there is a quantifier "zero probability of choosing a path pi in 2^{omega} which makes omega(pi) true";
- the monadic quantifiers range over sets with countable topological closure.
We introduce an automaton model, and show that it captures the logic
Weak Mso with the Unbounding Quantifier
A new class of languages of infinite words is introduced, called the
max-regular languages, extending the class of -regular languages. The
class has two equivalent descriptions: in terms of automata (a type of
deterministic counter automaton), and in terms of logic (weak monadic
second-order logic with a bounding quantifier). Effective translations between
the logic and automata are given
Optimizing Tree Decompositions in MSO
The classic algorithm of Bodlaender and Kloks solves the following problem in linear fixed-parameter time: given a tree decomposition of a graph of (possibly suboptimal) width k, compute an optimum-width tree decomposition of the graph. In this work, we prove that this problem can also be solved in MSO in the following sense: for every positive integer k, there is an MSO transduction from tree decompositions of width k to tree decompositions of optimum width. Together with our recent results, this implies that for every k there exists an MSO transduction which inputs a graph of treewidth k, and nondeterministically outputs its tree decomposition of optimum width
Wreath Products of Forest Algebras, with Applications to Tree Logics
We use the recently developed theory of forest algebras to find algebraic
characterizations of the languages of unranked trees and forests definable in
various logics. These include the temporal logics CTL and EF, and first-order
logic over the ancestor relation. While the characterizations are in general
non-effective, we are able to use them to formulate necessary conditions for
definability and provide new proofs that a number of languages are not
definable in these logics
Decidable classes of documents for XPath
We study the satisfiability problem for XPath over XML documents of bounded depth. We define two parameters, called match width and braid width, that assign a number to any class of documents. We show that for all k, satisfiability for XPath restricted to bounded depth documents with match width at most k is decidable; and that XPath is undecidable on any class of documents with unbounded braid width. We conjecture that these two parameters are equivalent, in the sense that a class of documents has bounded match width iff it has bounded braid width
Emptiness of Zero Automata Is Decidable
Zero automata are a probabilistic extension of parity automata on infinite trees. The satisfiability of a certain probabilistic variant of MSO, called TMSO+zero, reduces to the emptiness problem for zero automata. We introduce a variant of zero automata called nonzero automata. We prove that for every zero automaton there is an equivalent nonzero automaton of quadratic size
and the emptiness problem of nonzero automata is decidable, with complexity co-NP. These results imply that TMSO+zero has decidable satisfiability