155 research outputs found
First-Order Model Checking on Generalisations of Pushdown Graphs
We study the first-order model checking problem on two generalisations of
pushdown graphs. The first class is the class of nested pushdown trees. The
other is the class of collapsible pushdown graphs. Our main results are the
following. First-order logic with reachability is uniformly decidable on nested
pushdown trees. Considering first-order logic without reachability, we prove
decidability in doubly exponential alternating time with linearly many
alternations. First-order logic with regular reachability predicates is
uniformly decidable on level 2 collapsible pushdown graphs. Moreover, nested
pushdown trees are first-order interpretable in collapsible pushdown graphs of
level 2. This interpretation can be extended to an interpretation of the class
of higher-order nested pushdown trees in the collapsible pushdown graph
hierarchy. We prove that the second level of this new hierarchy of nested trees
has decidable first-order model checking. Our decidability result for
collapsible pushdown graph relies on the fact that level 2 collapsible pushdown
graphs are uniform tree-automatic. Our last result concerns tree-automatic
structures in general. We prove that first-order logic extended by Ramsey
quantifiers is decidable on all tree-automatic structures.Comment: phd thesis, 255 page
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