ON THE COMPUTING POWER OF PROGRAMS WITH SETS

1992 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 161-180
Author(s):  
ALEXEI P. STOLBOUSHKIN

The class FDSet of while-programs equipped with finite sets as internal data type is considered in the context of generalized computability over abstract first order structures. This class is proved to be semi-universal, i.e. to be able to compute every computable function in every infinite finitely-generated structure. However, for this class the halting problem on finite structures is decidable within LinearSpace complexity (on the cardinality of structure), and it is proved that the dynamic logic of the class FDSet describes exactly the class LinearSpace computable global predicates on the class of all one-generated finite structures of a given signature. Some other classes of data complexity are also described in the paper in similar terms. Due to the semi-universality, this class FDSet is a good basis for developing generalized complexity theory.

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Rosen

Model theory is concerned mainly, although not exclusively, with infinite structures. In recent years, finite structures have risen to greater prominence, both within the context of mainstream model theory, e.g., in work of Lachlan, Cherlin, Hrushovski, and others, and with the advent of finite model theory, which incorporates elements of classical model theory, combinatorics, and complexity theory. The purpose of this survey is to provide an overview of what might be called the model theory of finite structures. Some topics in finite model theory have strong connections to theoretical computer science, especially descriptive complexity theory (see [26, 46]). In fact, it has been suggested that finite model theory really is, or should be, logic for computer science. These connections with computer science will, however, not be treated here.It is well-known that many classical results of ‘infinite model theory’ fail over the class of finite structures, including the compactness and completeness theorems, as well as many preservation and interpolation theorems (see [35, 26]). The failure of compactness in the finite, in particular, means that the standard proofs of many theorems are no longer valid in this context. At present, there is no known example of a classical theorem that remains true over finite structures, yet must be proved by substantially different methods. It is generally concluded that first-order logic is ‘badly behaved’ over finite structures.From the perspective of expressive power, first-order logic also behaves badly: it is both too weak and too strong. Too weak because many natural properties, such as the size of a structure being even or a graph being connected, cannot be defined by a single sentence. Too strong, because every class of finite structures with a finite signature can be defined by an infinite set of sentences. Even worse, every finite structure is defined up to isomorphism by a single sentence. In fact, it is perhaps because of this last point more than anything else that model theorists have not been very interested in finite structures. Modern model theory is concerned largely with complete first-order theories, which are completely trivial here.


2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 777-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Flum ◽  
Martin Grohe

One of the fundamental results of descriptive complexity theory, due to Immerman [13] and Vardi [18], says that a class of ordered finite structures is definable in fixed-point logic if, and only if, it is computable in polynomial time. Much effort has been spent on the problem of capturing polynomial time, that is, describing all polynomial time computable classes of not necessarily ordered finite structures by a logic in a similar way.The most obvious shortcoming of fixed-point logic itself on unordered structures is that it cannot count. Immerman [14] responded to this by adding counting constructs to fixed-point logic. Although it has been proved by Cai, Fürer, and Immerman [1] that the resulting fixed-point logic with counting, denoted by IFP+C, still does not capture all of polynomial time, it does capture polynomial time on several important classes of structures (on trees, planar graphs, structures of bounded tree-width [15, 9, 10]).The main motivation for such capturing results is that they may give a better understanding of polynomial time. But of course this requires that the logical side is well understood. We hope that our analysis of IFP+C-formulas will help to clarify the expressive power of IFP+C; in particular, we derive a normal form. Moreover, we obtain a problem complete for IFP+C under first-order reductions.


1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (143) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Harel ◽  
Dexter Kozen

We introduce a programming language IND that generalizes alternating Turing machines to arbitrary first-order structures. We show that IND programs (respectively, everywhere-halting IND programs, loop-free IND programs) accept precisely the inductively definable (respectively, hyperelementary, elementary) relations. We give several examples showing how the language provides a robust and computational approach to the theory of first-order inductive definability. We then show: (1) on all acceptable structures (in the sense of Moschovakis), r.e. Dynamic Logic is more expressive than finite-test Dynamic Logic. This refines a separation result of Meyer and Parikh; (2) IND provides a natural query language for the set of fixpoint queries over a relational database, answering a question of Chandra and Harel.


2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Hirsch ◽  
Jaš Šemrl

AbstractThe motivation for using demonic calculus for binary relations stems from the behaviour of demonic turing machines, when modelled relationally. Relational composition (; ) models sequential runs of two programs and demonic refinement ($$\sqsubseteq $$ ⊑ ) arises from the partial order given by modeling demonic choice ($$\sqcup $$ ⊔ ) of programs (see below for the formal relational definitions). We prove that the class $$R(\sqsubseteq , ;)$$ R ( ⊑ , ; ) of abstract $$(\le , \circ )$$ ( ≤ , ∘ ) structures isomorphic to a set of binary relations ordered by demonic refinement with composition cannot be axiomatised by any finite set of first-order $$(\le , \circ )$$ ( ≤ , ∘ ) formulas. We provide a fairly simple, infinite, recursive axiomatisation that defines $$R(\sqsubseteq , ;)$$ R ( ⊑ , ; ) . We prove that a finite representable $$(\le , \circ )$$ ( ≤ , ∘ ) structure has a representation over a finite base. This appears to be the first example of a signature for binary relations with composition where the representation class is non-finitely axiomatisable, but where the finite representation property holds for finite structures.


Author(s):  
Carsten Lutz ◽  
Leif Sabellek

We consider ontology-mediated queries (OMQs) based on an EL ontology and an atomic query (AQ), provide an ultimately fine-grained analysis of data complexity and study rewritability into linear Datalog-aiming to capture linear recursion in SQL. Our main results are that every such OMQ is in AC0, NL-complete or PTime-complete, and that containment in NL coincides with rewritability into linear Datalog (whereas containment in AC0 coincides with rewritability into first-order logic). We establish natural characterizations of the three cases, show that deciding linear Datalog rewritability (as well as the mentioned complexities) is ExpTime-complete, give a way to construct linear Datalog rewritings when they exist, and prove that there is no constant bound on the arity of IDB relations in linear Datalog rewritings.


Author(s):  
Francesco Belardinelli ◽  
Andreas Herzig

We introduce a first-order extension of dynamic logic (FO-DL), suitable to represent and reason about the behaviour of Data-aware Systems (DaS), which are systems whose data content is explicitly exhibited in the system’s description. We illustrate the expressivity of the formal framework by modelling English auctions as DaS, and by specifying relevant properties in FO-DL. Most importantly, we develop an abstraction-based verification procedure, thus proving that the model checking problem for DaS against FO-DL is actually decidable, provided some mild assumptions on the interpretationdomain.


1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper G. Henriksen ◽  
P. S. Thiagarajan

A simple extension of the propositional temporal logic of linear<br />time is proposed. The extension consists of strengthening the until<br />operator by indexing it with the regular programs of propositional<br />dynamic logic (PDL). It is shown that DLTL, the resulting logic, is<br />expressively equivalent to S1S, the monadic second-order theory<br />of omega-sequences. In fact a sublogic of DLTL which corresponds<br />to propositional dynamic logic with a linear time semantics is<br />already as expressive as S1S. We pin down in an obvious manner<br />the sublogic of DLTL which correponds to the first order fragment<br />of S1S. We show that DLTL has an exponential time decision<br />procedure. We also obtain an axiomatization of DLTL. Finally,<br />we point to some natural extensions of the approach presented<br />here for bringing together propositional dynamic and temporal<br />logics in a linear time setting.


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