167 research outputs found
Cores of Countably Categorical Structures
A relational structure is a core, if all its endomorphisms are embeddings.
This notion is important for computational complexity classification of
constraint satisfaction problems. It is a fundamental fact that every finite
structure has a core, i.e., has an endomorphism such that the structure induced
by its image is a core; moreover, the core is unique up to isomorphism. Weprove
that every \omega -categorical structure has a core. Moreover, every
\omega-categorical structure is homomorphically equivalent to a model-complete
core, which is unique up to isomorphism, and which is finite or \omega
-categorical. We discuss consequences for constraint satisfaction with \omega
-categorical templates
On Ramsey properties of classes with forbidden trees
Let F be a set of relational trees and let Forbh(F) be the class of all
structures that admit no homomorphism from any tree in F; all this happens over
a fixed finite relational signature . There is a natural way to expand
Forbh(F) by unary relations to an amalgamation class. This expanded class,
enhanced with a linear ordering, has the Ramsey property.Comment: Keywords: forbidden substructure; amalgamation; Ramsey class; partite
method v2: changed definition of expanded class; v3: final versio
Model Checking Games for the Quantitative mu-Calculus
We investigate quantitative extensions of modal logic and the modal
mu-calculus, and study the question whether the tight connection between logic
and games can be lifted from the qualitative logics to their quantitative
counterparts. It turns out that, if the quantitative mu-calculus is defined in
an appropriate way respecting the duality properties between the logical
operators, then its model checking problem can indeed be characterised by a
quantitative variant of parity games. However, these quantitative games have
quite different properties than their classical counterparts, in particular
they are, in general, not positionally determined. The correspondence between
the logic and the games goes both ways: the value of a formula on a
quantitative transition system coincides with the value of the associated
quantitative game, and conversely, the values of quantitative parity games are
definable in the quantitative mu-calculus
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
Positional Determinacy of Games with Infinitely Many Priorities
We study two-player games of infinite duration that are played on finite or
infinite game graphs. A winning strategy for such a game is positional if it
only depends on the current position, and not on the history of the play. A
game is positionally determined if, from each position, one of the two players
has a positional winning strategy.
The theory of such games is well studied for winning conditions that are
defined in terms of a mapping that assigns to each position a priority from a
finite set. Specifically, in Muller games the winner of a play is determined by
the set of those priorities that have been seen infinitely often; an important
special case are parity games where the least (or greatest) priority occurring
infinitely often determines the winner. It is well-known that parity games are
positionally determined whereas Muller games are determined via finite-memory
strategies.
In this paper, we extend this theory to the case of games with infinitely
many priorities. Such games arise in several application areas, for instance in
pushdown games with winning conditions depending on stack contents.
For parity games there are several generalisations to the case of infinitely
many priorities. While max-parity games over omega or min-parity games over
larger ordinals than omega require strategies with infinite memory, we can
prove that min-parity games with priorities in omega are positionally
determined. Indeed, it turns out that the min-parity condition over omega is
the only infinitary Muller condition that guarantees positional determinacy on
all game graphs
Parity and Streett Games with Costs
We consider two-player games played on finite graphs equipped with costs on
edges and introduce two winning conditions, cost-parity and cost-Streett, which
require bounds on the cost between requests and their responses. Both
conditions generalize the corresponding classical omega-regular conditions and
the corresponding finitary conditions. For parity games with costs we show that
the first player has positional winning strategies and that determining the
winner lies in NP and coNP. For Streett games with costs we show that the first
player has finite-state winning strategies and that determining the winner is
EXPTIME-complete. The second player might need infinite memory in both games.
Both types of games with costs can be solved by solving linearly many instances
of their classical variants.Comment: A preliminary version of this work appeared in FSTTCS 2012 under the
name "Cost-parity and Cost-Streett Games". The research leading to these
results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework
Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements 259454 (GALE) and 239850
(SOSNA
Linear Datalog and Bounded Path Duality of Relational Structures
In this paper we systematically investigate the connections between logics
with a finite number of variables, structures of bounded pathwidth, and linear
Datalog Programs. We prove that, in the context of Constraint Satisfaction
Problems, all these concepts correspond to different mathematical embodiments
of a unique robust notion that we call bounded path duality. We also study the
computational complexity implications of the notion of bounded path duality. We
show that every constraint satisfaction problem \csp(\best) with bounded path
duality is solvable in NL and that this notion explains in a uniform way all
families of CSPs known to be in NL. Finally, we use the results developed in
the paper to identify new problems in NL
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
- …