Witnessed Symmetric Choice and Interpretations in Fixed-Point Logic with Counting

At the core of the quest for a logic for Ptime is a mismatch between algorithms making arbitrary choices and isomorphism-invariant logics. One approach to tackle this problem is witnessed symmetric choice. It allows for choices from definable orbits certified by definable witnessing automorphisms. We consider the extension of fixed-point logic with counting (IFPC) with witnessed symmetric choice (IFPC+WSC) and a further extension with an interpretation operator (IFPC+WSC+I). The latter operator evaluates a subformula in the structure defined by an interpretation. When similarly extending pure fixed-point logic (IFP), IFP+WSC+I simulates counting which IFP+WSC fails to do. For IFPC+WSC, it is unknown whether the interpretation operator increases expressiveness and thus allows studying the relation between WSC and interpretations beyond counting. In this paper, we separate IFPC+WSC from IFPC+WSC+I by showing that IFPC+WSC is not closed under FO-interpretations. By the same argument, we answer an open question of Dawar and Richerby regarding non-witnessed symmetric choice in IFP. Additionally, we prove that nesting WSC-operators increases the expressiveness using the so-called CFI graphs. We show that if IFPC+WSC+I canonizes a particular class of base graphs, then it also canonizes the corresponding CFI graphs. This differs from various other logics, where CFI graphs provide difficult instances

Witnessed Symmetric Choice and Interpretations in Fixed-Point Logic with Counting

At the core of the quest for a logic for PTime is a mismatch between algorithms making arbitrary choices and isomorphism-invariant logics. One approach to overcome this problem is witnessed symmetric choice. It allows for choices from definable orbits which are certified by definable witnessing automorphisms. We consider the extension of fixed-point logic with counting (IFPC) with witnessed symmetric choice (IFPC+WSC) and a further extension with an interpretation operator (IFPC+WSC+I). The latter operator evaluates a subformula in the structure defined by an interpretation. This structure possibly has other automorphisms exploitable by the WSC-operator. For similar extensions of pure fixed-point logic (IFP) it is known that IFP+WSCI simulates counting which IFP+WSC fails to do. For IFPC+WSC it is unknown whether the interpretation operator increases expressiveness and thus allows studying the relation between WSC and interpretations beyond counting. We separate IFPC+WSC from IFPC+WSCI by showing that IFPC+WSC is not closed under FO-interpretations. By the same argument, we answer an open question of Dawar and Richerby regarding non-witnessed symmetric choice in IFP. Additionally, we prove that nesting WSC-operators increases the expressiveness using the so-called CFI graphs. We show that if IFPC+WSC+I canonizes a particular class of base graphs, then it also canonizes the corresponding CFI graphs. This differs from various other logics, where CFI graphs provide difficult instances.Comment: 46 pages, 5 figures, [v2] and [v3] Corrected minor mistakes and added figure

Choiceless Polynomial Time with Witnessed Symmetric Choice

We extend Choiceless Polynomial Time (CPT), the currently only remaining promising candidate in the quest for a logic capturing PTime, so that this extended logic has the following property: for every class of structures for which isomorphism is definable, the logic automatically captures PTime. For the construction of this logic we extend CPT by a witnessed symmetric choice operator. This operator allows for choices from definable orbits. But, to ensure polynomial time evaluation, automorphisms have to be provided to certify that the choice set is indeed an orbit. We argue that, in this logic, definable isomorphism implies definable canonization. Thereby, our construction removes the non-trivial step of extending isomorphism definability results to canonization. This step was a part of proofs that show that CPT or other logics capture PTime on a particular class of structures. The step typically required substantial extra effort.Comment: 65 pages. Full version of a paper to appear at LICS 22. v2: corrected typos and small mistake

Canonization for Bounded and Dihedral Color Classes in Choiceless Polynomial Time

In the quest for a logic capturing Ptime the next natural classes of structures to consider are those with bounded color class size. We present a canonization procedure for graphs with dihedral color classes of bounded size in the logic of Choiceless Polynomial Time (CPT), which then captures Ptime on this class of structures. This is the first result of this form for non-abelian color classes. The first step proposes a normal form which comprises a "rigid assemblage". This roughly means that the local automorphism groups form 2-injective 3-factor subdirect products. Structures with color classes of bounded size can be reduced canonization preservingly to normal form in CPT. In the second step, we show that for graphs in normal form with dihedral color classes of bounded size, the canonization problem can be solved in CPT. We also show the same statement for general ternary structures in normal form if the dihedral groups are defined over odd domains

The Iteration Number of the Weisfeiler-Leman Algorithm

We prove new upper and lower bounds on the number of iterations the $k$-dimensional Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm ($k$-WL) requires until stabilization. For $k \geq 3$, we show that $k$-WL stabilizes after at most $O(kn^{k-1}\log n)$ iterations (where $n$ denotes the number of vertices of the input structures), obtaining the first improvement over the trivial upper bound of $n^{k}-1$ and extending a previous upper bound of $O(n \log n)$ for $k=2$ [Lichter et al., LICS 2019]. We complement our upper bounds by constructing $k$-ary relational structures on which $k$-WL requires at least $n^{\Omega(k)}$ iterations to stabilize. This improves over a previous lower bound of $n^{\Omega(k / \log k)}$ [Berkholz, Nordstr\"{o}m, LICS 2016]. We also investigate tradeoffs between the dimension and the iteration number of WL, and show that $d$-WL, where $d = \lceil\frac{3(k+1)}{2}\rceil$, can simulate the $k$-WL algorithm using only $O(k^2 \cdot n^{\lfloor k/2\rfloor + 1} \log n)$ many iterations, but still requires at least $n^{\Omega(k)}$ iterations for any $d$ (that is sufficiently smaller than $n$). The number of iterations required by $k$-WL to distinguish two structures corresponds to the quantifier rank of a sentence distinguishing them in the $(k + 1)$-variable fragment $C_{k+1}$ of first-order logic with counting quantifiers. Hence, our results also imply new upper and lower bounds on the quantifier rank required in the logic $C_{k+1}$, as well as tradeoffs between variable number and quantifier rank.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, full version of a paper accepted at LICS 2023; second version improves the presentation of the result

Limitations of Game Comonads via Homomorphism Indistinguishability

Abramsky, Dawar, and Wang (2017) introduced the pebbling comonad for k-variable counting logic and thereby initiated a line of work that imports category theoretic machinery to finite model theory. Such game comonads have been developed for various logics, yielding characterisations of logical equivalences in terms of isomorphisms in the associated co-Kleisli category. We show a first limitation of this approach by studying linear-algebraic logic, which is strictly more expressive than first-order counting logic and whose k-variable logical equivalence relations are known as invertible-map equivalences (IM). We show that there exists no finite-rank comonad on the category of graphs whose co-Kleisli isomorphisms characterise IM-equivalence, answering a question of \'O Conghaile and Dawar (CSL 2021). We obtain this result by ruling out a characterisation of IM-equivalence in terms of homomorphism indistinguishability and employing the Lov\'asz-type theorems for game comonads established by Dawar, Jakl, and Reggio (2021). Two graphs are homomorphism indistinguishable over a graph class if they admit the same number of homomorphisms from every graph in the class. The IM-equivalences cannot be characterised in this way, neither when counting homomorphisms in the natural numbers, nor in any finite prime field.Comment: Minor corrections in Section

Labor Supply Shocks, Native Wages, and the Adjustment of Local Employment

By exploiting a commuting policy that led to a sharp and unexpected inflow of Czech workers to areas along the German-Czech border, we examine the impact of an exogenous immigration-induced labor supply shock on local wages and employment of natives. On average, the supply shock leads to a moderate decline in local native wages and a sharp decline in local native employment. These average effects mask considerable heterogeneity across groups: while younger natives experience larger wage effects, employment responses are particularly pronounced for older natives. This pattern is inconsistent with standard models of immigration but can be accounted for by a model that allows for a larger labor supply elasticity or a higher degree of wage rigidity for older than for young workers. We further show that the employment response is almost entirely driven by diminished inflows of natives into work rather than outflows into other areas or nonemployment, suggesting that "outsiders" shield "insiders" from the increased competition.Christian Dustmann acknowledges funding through the ERC Advanced Grant 323992-DMEA and by the DFG (DU1024/1-1). Jan Stuhler acknowledges funding from the German National Academic Foundation, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MDM2014-0431 and ECO2014-55858-P), and the Comunidad de Madrid (MadEco-CM S2015/HUM-3444)