47 research outputs found
A Type-Directed Negation Elimination
In the modal mu-calculus, a formula is well-formed if each recursive variable
occurs underneath an even number of negations. By means of De Morgan's laws, it
is easy to transform any well-formed formula into an equivalent formula without
negations -- its negation normal form. Moreover, if the formula is of size n,
its negation normal form of is of the same size O(n). The full modal
mu-calculus and the negation normal form fragment are thus equally expressive
and concise.
In this paper we extend this result to the higher-order modal fixed point
logic (HFL), an extension of the modal mu-calculus with higher-order recursive
predicate transformers. We present a procedure that converts a formula into an
equivalent formula without negations of quadratic size in the worst case and of
linear size when the number of variables of the formula is fixed.Comment: In Proceedings FICS 2015, arXiv:1509.0282
Model-Checking the Higher-Dimensional Modal mu-Calculus
The higher-dimensional modal mu-calculus is an extension of the mu-calculus
in which formulas are interpreted in tuples of states of a labeled transition
system. Every property that can be expressed in this logic can be checked in
polynomial time, and conversely every polynomial-time decidable problem that
has a bisimulation-invariant encoding into labeled transition systems can also
be defined in the higher-dimensional modal mu-calculus. We exemplify the latter
connection by giving several examples of decision problems which reduce to
model checking of the higher-dimensional modal mu-calculus for some fixed
formulas. This way generic model checking algorithms for the logic can then be
used via partial evaluation in order to obtain algorithms for theses problems
which may benefit from improvements that are well-established in the field of
program verification, namely on-the-fly and symbolic techniques. The aim of
this work is to extend such techniques to other fields as well, here
exemplarily done for process equivalences, automata theory, parsing, string
problems, and games.Comment: In Proceedings FICS 2012, arXiv:1202.317
Internal Calculi for Separation Logics
We present a general approach to axiomatise separation logics with heaplet semantics with no external features such as nominals/labels. To start with, we design the first (internal) Hilbert-style axiomatisation for the quantifier-free separation logic SL(?, -*). We instantiate the method by introducing a new separation logic with essential features: it is equipped with the separating conjunction, the predicate ls, and a natural guarded form of first-order quantification. We apply our approach for its axiomatisation. As a by-product of our method, we also establish the exact expressive power of this new logic and we show PSpace-completeness of its satisfiability problem
Buffered Simulation Games for B\"uchi Automata
Simulation relations are an important tool in automata theory because they
provide efficiently computable approximations to language inclusion. In recent
years, extensions of ordinary simulations have been studied, for instance
multi-pebble and multi-letter simulations which yield better approximations and
are still polynomial-time computable.
In this paper we study the limitations of approximating language inclusion in
this way: we introduce a natural extension of multi-letter simulations called
buffered simulations. They are based on a simulation game in which the two
players share a FIFO buffer of unbounded size. We consider two variants of
these buffered games called continuous and look-ahead simulation which differ
in how elements can be removed from the FIFO buffer. We show that look-ahead
simulation, the simpler one, is already PSPACE-hard, i.e. computationally as
hard as language inclusion itself. Continuous simulation is even EXPTIME-hard.
We also provide matching upper bounds for solving these games with infinite
state spaces.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527
Model-Checking Process Equivalences
Process equivalences are formal methods that relate programs and system
which, informally, behave in the same way. Since there is no unique notion of
what it means for two dynamic systems to display the same behaviour there are a
multitude of formal process equivalences, ranging from bisimulation to trace
equivalence, categorised in the linear-time branching-time spectrum.
We present a logical framework based on an expressive modal fixpoint logic
which is capable of defining many process equivalence relations: for each such
equivalence there is a fixed formula which is satisfied by a pair of processes
if and only if they are equivalent with respect to this relation. We explain
how to do model checking, even symbolically, for a significant fragment of this
logic that captures many process equivalences. This allows model checking
technology to be used for process equivalence checking. We show how partial
evaluation can be used to obtain decision procedures for process equivalences
from the generic model checking scheme.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2012, arXiv:1210.202
On Symbolic Heaps Modulo Permission Theories
We address the entailment problem for separation logic with symbolic heaps admitting list pred- icates and permissions for memory cells that are essential to express ownership of a heap region. In the permission-free case, the entailment problem is known to be in P. Herein, we design new decision procedures for solving the satisfiability and entailment problems that are parameterised by the permission theories. This permits the use of solvers dealing with the permission theory at hand, independently of the shape analysis. We also show that the entailment problem without list predicates is coNP-complete for several permission models, such as counting permissions and binary tree shares but the problem is in P for fractional permissions. Furthermore, when list predicates are added, we prove that the entailment problem is coNP-complete when the entail- ment problem for permission formulae is in coNP, assuming the write permission can be split into as many read permissions as desired. Finally, we show that the entailment problem for any Boolean permission model with infinite width is coNP-complete
Separability in the Ambient Logic
The \it{Ambient Logic} (AL) has been proposed for expressing properties of
process mobility in the calculus of Mobile Ambients (MA), and as a basis for
query languages on semistructured data. We study some basic questions
concerning the discriminating power of AL, focusing on the equivalence on
processes induced by the logic . As underlying calculi besides MA we
consider a subcalculus in which an image-finiteness condition holds and that we
prove to be Turing complete. Synchronous variants of these calculi are studied
as well. In these calculi, we provide two operational characterisations of
: a coinductive one (as a form of bisimilarity) and an inductive one
(based on structual properties of processes). After showing to be stricly
finer than barbed congruence, we establish axiomatisations of on the
subcalculus of MA (both the asynchronous and the synchronous version), enabling
us to relate to structural congruence. We also present some
(un)decidability results that are related to the above separation properties
for AL: the undecidability of on MA and its decidability on the
subcalculus.Comment: logical methods in computer science, 44 page
The Tail-Recursive Fragment of Timed Recursive CTL
Timed Recursive CTL (TRCTL) was recently proposed as a merger of two extensions of the well-known branching-time logic CTL: Timed CTL on one hand is interpreted over real-time systems like timed automata, and Recursive CTL (RecCTL) on the other hand obtains high expressiveness through the introduction of a recursion operator. Model checking for the resulting logic is known to be 2-EXPTIME-complete.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility to obtain a fragment of lower complexity without losing too much expressive power. It is obtained by a syntactic property called "tail-recursiveness" that restricts the way that recursive formulas can be built. This restriction is known to decrease the complexity of model checking by half an exponential in the untimed setting. We show that this also works in the real-time world: model checking for the tail-recursive fragment of TRCTL is EXPSPACE-complete. The upper bound is obtained by a standard untiming construction via region graphs, and rests on the known complexity of tail-recursive fragments of higher-order modal logics. The lower bound is established by a reduction from a suitable tiling problem
The Effects of Adding Reachability Predicates in Propositional Separation Logic
International audienceThe list segment predicate ls used in separation logic for verifying programs with pointers is well-suited to express properties on singly-linked lists. We study the effects of adding ls to the full proposi-tional separation logic with the separating conjunction and implication, which is motivated by the recent design of new fragments in which all these ingredients are used indifferently and verification tools start to handle the magic wand connective. This is a very natural extension that has not been studied so far. We show that the restriction without the separating implication can be solved in polynomial space by using an appropriate abstraction for memory states whereas the full extension is shown undecidable by reduction from first-order separation logic. Many variants of the logic and fragments are also investigated from the computational point of view when ls is added, providing numerous results about adding reachability predicates to propositional separation logic