Integrating processes in temporal logic

Abstract

In this paper we propose a technique to integrate process models in classical structures for quantified temporal (modal) logic. The idea is that in a temporal logic processes are ordinary syntactical objects with a specific semantical representation. So we want to achieve a `temporal logics of processes\u27 to adequately describe aspects of systems dealing with data structures, reactive and time-critical behavior, environmental influences, and their interaction in a single frame. Thus the structural information of processes can be captured and exploited to guide proofs. As an instance of this scheme we present a quantified, metric, linear temporal logic containing processes and conjunctions of processes explicitly. Like a predicate a process can be regarded as a special kind of atomic formula with its own intension, a family of sets collecting the observable behavior as `runs\u27. A run is comparable with a Hoare-traces or a timed observational sequence it is a sequence of sequences of values taken from a set of objects. Each single value can be regarded as a snapshot of an observable feature at a moment in time, e.g. a value transmitted through a channel. Such a set has to respects the structure of the underlying temporal logic, but not one to one, we do not require that for a path in the time structure there is exactly one possible run. Since each run has a certain length, the view of a run is in particular associated with a time interval. The difference between moments and intervals of time is expressed by several kinds of modal operators each of them with restrictions in the shape of annotated equations and predicates to determined the relevant time slices. We describe syntax and semantic of this logic especially with a focus on the process part. Finally we sketch a calculus and give some examples

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