Semiring Provenance for B\"uchi Games: Strategy Analysis with Absorptive Polynomials

This paper presents a case study for the application of semiring semantics for fixed-point formulae to the analysis of strategies in B\"uchi games. Semiring semantics generalizes the classical Boolean semantics by permitting multiple truth values from certain semirings. Evaluating the fixed-point formula that defines the winning region in a given game in an appropriate semiring of polynomials provides not only the Boolean information on who wins, but also tells us how they win and which strategies they might use. This is well-understood for reachability games, where the winning region is definable as a least fixed point. The case of B\"uchi games is of special interest, not only due to their practical importance, but also because it is the simplest case where the fixed-point definition involves a genuine alternation of a greatest and a least fixed point. We show that, in a precise sense, semiring semantics provide information about all absorption-dominant strategies -- strategies that win with minimal effort, and we discuss how these relate to positional and the more general persistent strategies. This information enables further applications such as game synthesis or determining minimal modifications to the game needed to change its outcome. Lastly, we discuss limitations of our approach and present questions that cannot be immediately answered by semiring semantics.Comment: Full version of a paper submitted to GandALF 202

Logic and Random Discrete Structures (Dagstuhl Seminar 22061)

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 22061 "Logic and Random Discrete Structures". The main topic of this seminar has been the analysis of large random discrete structures, such as trees, graphs, or permutations, from the perspective of mathematical logic. It has brought together both experts and junior researchers from a number of different areas where logic and random structures play a role, with the goal to establish new connections between such areas and to encourage interactions between foundational research and different application areas, including probabilistic databases