On the Expressiveness of QCTL

QCTL extends the temporal logic CTL with quantification over atomic propositions. While the algorithmic questions for QCTL and its fragments with limited quantification depth are well-understood (e.g. satisfiability of QkCTL, with at most k nested blocks of quantifiers, is (k+1)-EXPTIME-complete), very few results are known about the expressiveness of this logic. We address such expressiveness questions in this paper. We first consider the distinguishing power of these logics (i.e., their ability to separate models), their relationship with behavioural equivalences, and their ability to capture the behaviours of finite Kripke structures with so-called characteristic formulas. We then consider their expressive power (i.e., their ability to express a property), showing that in terms of expressiveness the hierarchy QkCTL collapses at level 2 (in other terms, any QCTL formula can be expressed using at most two nested blocks of quantifiers)

Is your Model Checker on Time? On the Complexity of Model Checking for Timed Modal Logics

This paper studies the structural complexity of model checkingfor (variations on) the specification formalisms used in the tools CMCand Uppaal, and fragments of a timed alternation-free mu-calculus. Foreach of the logics we study, we characterize the computational complexityof model checking, as well as its specification and program complexity,using timed automata as our system model

From Timed Automata to Logic - and Back

One of the most successful techniques for automatic verification is thatof model checking. For finite automata there exist since long extremelyefficient model-checking algorithms, and in the last few years these algorithms have been made applicable to the verification of real-time automata using the region-techniques of Alur and Dill.In this paper, we continue this transfer of existing techniques from thesetting of finite (untimed) automata to that of timed automata. In particular, a timed logic L is put forward, which is sufficiently expressive that we for any timed automaton may construct a single characteristic L formula uniquely characterizing the automaton up to timed bisimilarity. Also, we prove decidability of the satisfiability problem for L with respect to given bounds on the number of clocks and constants of the timed automata to be constructed. None of these results have as yet been succesfully accounted for in the presence of time

The Power of Proofs: New Algorithms for Timed Automata Model Checking (with Appendix)

This paper presents the first model-checking algorithm for an expressive modal mu-calculus over timed automata, $L^{\mathit{rel}, \mathit{af}}_{\nu,\mu}$, and reports performance results for an implementation. This mu-calculus contains extended time-modality operators and can express all of TCTL. Our algorithmic approach uses an "on-the-fly" strategy based on proof search as a means of ensuring high performance for both positive and negative answers to model-checking questions. In particular, a set of proof rules for solving model-checking problems are given and proved sound and complete; we encode our algorithm in these proof rules and model-check a property by constructing a proof (or showing none exists) using these rules. One noteworthy aspect of our technique is that we show that verification performance can be improved with \emph{derived rules}, whose correctness can be inferred from the more primitive rules on which they are based. In this paper, we give the basic proof rules underlying our method, describe derived proof rules to improve performance, and compare our implementation of this model checker to the UPPAAL tool.Comment: This is the preprint of the FORMATS 2014 paper, but this is the full version, containing the Appendix. The final publication is published from Springer, and is available at http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-10512-3_9 on the Springer webpag

The Twentieth Century

Probabilistic timed automata are an extension of timed automata with discrete probability distributions. We consider model-checking algorithms for the subclasses of probabilistic timed automata which have one or two clocks. Firstly, we show that PCTL probabilistic model-checking problems (such as determining whether a set of target states can be reached with probability at least 0.99 regardless of how nondeterminism is resolved) are PTIME-complete for one-clock probabilistic timed automata, and are EXPTIME-complete for probabilistic timed automata with two clocks. Secondly, we show that, for one-clock probabilistic timed automata, the model-checking problem for the probabilistic timed temporal logic PTCTL is EXPTIME-complete. However, the model-checking problem for the subclass of PTCTL which does not permit both punctual timing bounds, which require the occurrence of an event at an exact time point, and comparisons with probability bounds other than 0 or 1, is PTIME-complete for one-clock probabilistic timed automata

From Timed Automata to Logic --- and Back

In this paper, we define a timed logic L which is sufficiently expressive that we for any timed automaton may construct a single characteristic L formula uniquely characterizing the automaton up to timed bisimilarity. Also, we prove decidability of the satisfiability problem for L with respect to given bounds on the number of clocks and constants of the timed automata to be constructed

Modd checking probabilistic timed automata with one or two clocks

Probabilistic timed automata are an extension of timed automata with discrete probability distributions. We consider model-checking algorithms for the subclasses of probabilistic timed automata which have one or two clocks. Firstly, we show that PCTL probabilistic model-checking problems (such as determining whether it set of target states can be reached with probability at least 0.99 regardless of how nondeterminism is resolved) are PTIME-complete for one clock probabilistic timed automata, and are EXPTIME-complete for probabilistic timed automata with two clocks. Secondly, we show that the model-checking problem for the probabilistic timed temporal logic PTCTL is EXPTIME-complete for one clock probabilistic timed automata. However, the corresponding model-checking problem for the subclass of PTCTL which does not permit both (1) punctual timing bounds, which require the occurrence of an event at an exact time point, and (2) comparisons with probability bounds other than 0 or 1, is PTIME-complete

One Clock Priced Timed Automata: Model Checking and Optimal Strategies

In this paper, we consider priced (or weighted) timed au-tomata, and prove various decidability results when the au-tomaton has only one clock: we prove that model check-ing of WCTL is decidable and that optimal costs in priced timed games are computable. In contrast, it has recently been proved that these problems are undecidable for this model as soon as the system has three clocks.