We present a logic that extends CTL (Computation Tree Logic) with operators that express synchronization properties. A property is synchronized in a system if it holds in all paths of a certain length. The new logic is obtained by using the same path quantifiers and temporal operators as in CTL, but allowing a different order of the quantifiers. This small syntactic variation induces a logic that can express non-regular properties for which known extensions of MSO with equality of path length are undecidable. We show that our variant of CTL is decidable and that the model-checking problem is in Delta_3^P = P^{NP^NP}, and is DP-hard. We analogously consider quantifier exchange in extensions of CTL, and we present operators defined using basic operators of CTL* that express the occurrence of infinitely many synchronization points. We show that the model-checking problem remains in Delta_3^P. The distinguishing power of CTL and of our new logic coincide if the Next operator is allowed in the logics, thus the classical bisimulation quotient can be used for state-space reduction before model checking.
In this work, we develop a generalization of Hennessy-Milner Logic (HML) for Generalized Synchronization Trees (GSTs) that we call Generalized Hennessy Milner Logic (GHML). Importantly, this logic suggests a strong relationship between (weak) bisimulation for GSTs and ordinary bisimulation for Synchronization Trees (STs). We demonstrate that this relationship can be used to define the GST analog for image-finiteness of STs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that certain maximal Hennessy-Milner classes of STs have counterparts in maximal Hennessy-Milner classes of GSTs with respect to GST weak bisimu…
We study algebraic synchronization trees, i.e., initial solutions of algebraic recursion schemes over the continuous categorical algebra of synchronization trees. In particular, we investigate the relative expressive power of algebraic recursion schemes over two signatures, which are based on those for Basic CCS and Basic Process Algebra, as a means for defining synchronization trees up to isomorphism as well as modulo bisimilarity and language equivalence. The expressiveness of algebraic recursion schemes is also compared to that of the low levels in Caucal's pushdown hierarchy.
We provide decidability and undecidability results on the model-checking problem for infinite tree structures. These tree structures are built from sequences of elements of infinite relational structures. More precisely, we deal with the tree iteration of a relational structure M in the sense of Shelah-Stupp. In contrast to classical results where model-checking is shown decidable for MSO-logic, we show decidability of the tree model-checking problem for logics that allow only path quantifiers and chain quantifiers (where chains are subsets of paths), as they appear in branching time logics; h…
Separation Logic is a widely used formalism for describing dynamically allocated linked data structures, such as lists, trees, etc. The decidability status of various fragments of the logic constitutes a long standing open problem. Current results report on techniques to decide satisfiability and validity of entailments for Separation Logic(s) over lists (possibly with data). In this paper we establish a more general decidability result. We prove that any Separation Logic formula using rather general recursively defined predicates is decidable for satisfiability, and moreover, entailments betw…
We introduce the branching transitive closure operator on weighted monadic second-order logic formulas where the branching corresponds in a natural way to the branching inherent in trees. For arbitrary commutative semirings, we prove that weighted monadic second order logics on trees is equivalent to the definability by formulas which start with one of the following operators: (i) a branching transitive closure or (ii) an existential second-order quantifier followed by one universal first-order quantifier; in both cases the operator is applied to step-formulas over (a) Boolean first-order logi…
We use the recently developed theory of forest algebras to find algebraic characterizations of the languages of unranked trees and forests definable in various logics. These include the temporal logics CTL and EF, and first-order logic over the ancestor relation. While the characterizations are in general non-effective, we are able to use them to formulate necessary conditions for definability and provide new proofs that a number of languages are not definable in these logics.
We study tree languages that can be defined in Δ_2 . These are tree languages definable by a first-order formula whose quantifier prefix is forall exists, and simultaneously by a first-order formula whose quantifier prefix is . For the quantifier free part we consider two signatures, either the descendant relation alone or together with the lexicographical order relation on nodes. We provide an effective characterization of tree and forest languages definable in Δ_2 . This characterization is in terms of algebraic equations. Over words, the class of word languages definable in Δ_2 forms a robu…
Decision trees are simple, yet powerful, classification models used to classify categorical and numerical data, and, despite their simplicity, they are commonly used in operations research and management, as well as in knowledge mining. From a logical point of view, a decision tree can be seen as a structured set of logical rules written in propositional logic. Since knowledge mining is rapidly evolving towards temporal knowledge mining, and since in many cases temporal information is best described by interval temporal logics, propositional logic decision trees may evolve towards interval tem…
In this paper we introduce a new logical foundation of SAND attack trees in intuitionistic linear logic. This new foundation is based on a new logic called the Attack Tree Linear Logic (ATLL). Before introducing ATLL we given several new logical models of attack trees, the first, is a very basic model based in truth tables. Then we lift this semantics into a semantics of attack trees based on lineales which introduces implication, but this can be further lifted into a dialectica model which ATLL is based. One important feature of ATLL is that it supports full distributivity of sequential conju…
In this paper we compare three different formalisms that can be used in the area of models for distributed, concurrent and mobile systems. In particular we analyze the relationships between a process calculus, the Fusion Calculus, graph transformations in the Synchronized Hyperedge Replacement with Hoare synchronization (HSHR) approach and logic programming. We present a translation from Fusion Calculus into HSHR (whereas Fusion Calculus uses Milner synchronization) and prove a correspondence between the reduction semantics of Fusion Calculus and HSHR transitions. We also present a mapping fro…
We consider the satisfiability problem for the two-variable fragment of first-order logic over finite unranked trees. We work with signatures consisting of some unary predicates and the binary navigational predicates child, right sibling, and their respective transitive closures. We prove that the satisfiability problem for the logic containing all these predicates is EXPSPACE-complete. Further, we consider the restriction of the class of structures to singular trees, i.e., we assume that at every node precisely one unary predicate holds. We observe that the full logic and even for unordered t…
Temporal logic is a very powerful formalism deeply investigated and used in formal system design and verification. Its application usually reduces to solving specific decision problems such as model checking and satisfiability. In these kind of problems, the solution often requires detecting some specific properties over cycles. For instance, this happens when using classic techniques based on automata, game-theory, SCC decomposition, and the like. Surprisingly, no temporal logics have been considered so far with the explicit ability of talking about cycles. In this paper we introduce Cycle-CT…
We consider a specific class of tree structures that can represent basic structures in linguistics and computer science such as XML documents, parse trees, and treebanks, namely, finite node-labeled sibling-ordered trees. We present axiomatizations of the monadic second-order logic (MSO), monadic transitive closure logic (FO(TC1)) and monadic least fixed-point logic (FO(LFP1)) theories of this class of structures. These logics can express important properties such as reachability. Using model-theoretic techniques, we show by a uniform argument that these axiomatizations are complete, i.e., eac…
The finite satisfiability problem for the two-variable fragment of first-order logic interpreted over trees was recently shown to be ExpSpace-complete. We consider two extensions of this logic. We show that adding either additional binary symbols or counting quantifiers to the logic does not affect the complexity of the finite satisfiability problem. However, combining the two extensions and adding both binary symbols and counting quantifiers leads to an explosion of this complexity. We also compare the expressive power of the two-variable fragment over trees with its extension with counting q…
We study generalized possibilistic computation tree logic model checking in this paper, which is an extension of possibilistic computation logic model checking introduced by Y.Li, Y.Li and Z.Ma (2014). The system is modeled by generalized possibilistic Kripke structures (GPKS, in short), and the verifying property is specified by a generalized possibilistic computation tree logic (GPoCTL, in short) formula. Based on generalized possibility measures and generalized necessity measures, the method of generalized possibilistic computation tree logic model checking is discussed, and the correspondi…
Regular tree grammars and regular path expressions constitute core constructs widely used in programming languages and type systems. Nevertheless, there has been little research so far on reasoning frameworks for path expressions where node cardinality constraints occur along a path in a tree. We present a logic capable of expressing deep counting along paths which may include arbitrary recursive forward and backward navigation. The counting extensions can be seen as a generalization of graded modalities that count immediate successor nodes. While the combination of graded modalities, nominals…
We consider a temporal logic EF+F^-1 for unranked, unordered finite trees. The logic has two operators: EFϕ, which says "in some proper descendant ϕholds", and F^-1ϕ, which says "in some proper ancestor ϕholds". We present an algorithm for deciding if a regular language of unranked finite trees can be expressed in EF+F^-1. The algorithm uses a characterization expressed in terms of forest algebras.
Labeled unranked trees are used as a model of XML documents, and logical languages for them have been studied actively over the past several years. Such logics have different purposes: some are better suited for extracting data, some for expressing navigational properties, and some make it easy to relate complex properties of trees to the existence of tree automata for those properties. Furthermore, logics differ significantly in their model-checking properties, their automata models, and their behavior on ordered and unordered trees. In this paper we present a survey of logics for unranked tr…
We have developed a web-based pedagogical proof assistant, the Proof Tree Builder, that lets you apply rules upwards from the initial goal in sequent calculus and Hoare logic for a simple imperative language. We equipped our tool with a basic proof automation feature and Z3 integration. Students in the automated reasoning course at Princeton University used our tool and found it intuitive. The Proof Tree Builder is available online at https://proof-tree-builder.github.io.
This paper positively solves an open problem if it is possible to provide a Hilbert system to Epistemic Logic of Friendship (EFL) by Seligman, Girard and Liu. To find a Hilbert system, we first introduce a sound, complete and cut-free tree (or nested) sequent calculus for EFL, which is an integrated combination of Seligman's sequent calculus for basic hybrid logic and a tree sequent calculus for modal logic. Then we translate a tree sequent into an ordinary formula to specify a Hilbert system of EFL and finally show that our Hilbert system is sound and complete for the intended two-dimensional…
We introduce a generic extension of the popular branching-time logic CTL which refines the temporal until and release operators with formal languages. For instance, a language may determine the moments along a path that an until property may be fulfilled. We consider several classes of languages leading to logics with different expressive power and complexity, whose importance is motivated by their use in model checking, synthesis, abstract interpretation, etc. We show that even with context-free languages on the until operator the logic still allows for polynomial time model-checking despite …
Separation Logic (SL) with inductive definitions is a natural formalism for specifying complex recursive data structures, used in compositional verification of programs manipulating such structures. The key ingredient of any automated verification procedure based on SL is the decidability of the entailment problem. In this work, we reduce the entailment problem for a non-trivial subset of SL describing trees (and beyond) to the language inclusion of tree automata (TA). Our reduction provides tight complexity bounds for the problem and shows that entailment in our fragment is EXPTIME-complete. …
Nakano's "later" modality, inspired by Gödel-Löb provability logic, has been applied in type systems and program logics to capture guarded recursion. Birkedal et al modelled this modality via the internal logic of the topos of trees. We show that the semantics of the propositional fragment of this logic can be given by linear converse-well-founded intuitionistic Kripke frames, so this logic is a marriage of the intuitionistic modal logic KM and the intermediate logic LC. We therefore call this logic $\mathrm{KM}_{\mathrm{lin}}$. We give a sound and cut-free complete sequent calculus for $\math…
We introduce a Three Tier Tree Calculus (3TC) that defines in a systematic way three tiers of tree structures underlying proof search in logic programming. We use 3TC to define a new -- structural -- version of resolution for logic programming.
Data trees are trees in which each node, besides carrying a label from a finite alphabet, also carries a data value from an infinite domain. They have been used as an abstraction model for reasoning tasks on {XML} and verification. However, most existing approaches consider the case where only equality test can be performed on the data values. In this paper we study data trees in which the data values come from a linearly ordered domain, and in addition to equality test, we can test whether the data value in a node is greater than the one in another node. We introduce an automata model for the…
The two major systems of formal verification are model checking and algebraic model-based testing. Model checking is based on some form of temporal logic such as linear temporal logic (LTL) or computation tree logic (CTL). One powerful and realistic logic being used is CTL, which is capable of expressing most interesting properties of processes such as liveness and safety. Model-based testing is based on some operational semantics of processes (such as traces, failures, or both) and its associated preorders. The most fine-grained preorder beside bisimulation (mostly of theoretical importance) …
Programming in Prolog is hard for programmers that are used to procedural coding. In this manual the method of drawing search trees is introduced with the aim to get a better understanding of how Prolog works. After giving a first example of a Prolog database, query and search tree, the art of drawing search trees is systematically introduced giving guidelines for queries with variables, conjunction, disjunction, and negation. Further examples are provided by giving the complete search trees that are shown in Learn Prolog Now!
Process algebra and temporal logic are two popular paradigms for the specification, verification and systematic development of reactive and concurrent systems. These two approaches take different standpoint for looking at specifications and verifications, and offer complementary advantages. In order to mix algebraic and logic styles of specification in a uniform framework, the notion of a logic labelled transition system (LLTS) has been presented and explored by Luttgen and Vogler. This paper intends to propose a LLTS-oriented process calculus which, in addition to usual process-algebraic oper…
We prove that the theory of Monadic Second-Order logic (MSO) of the infinite binary tree extended with qualitative path-measure quantifier is undecidable. This quantifier says that the set of infinite paths in the tree that satisfies some formula has Lebesgue-measure one. To do this we prove that the emptiness problem of qualitative universal parity tree automata is undecidable. Qualitative means that a run of a tree automaton is accepting if the set of paths in the run that satisfy the acceptance condition has Lebesgue-measure one.
We introduce a logical foundation to reason on tree structures with constraints on the number of node occurrences. Related formalisms are limited to express occurrence constraints on particular tree regions, as for instance the children of a given node. By contrast, the logic introduced in the present work can concisely express numerical bounds on any region, descendants or ancestors for instance. We prove that the logic is decidable in single exponential time even if the numerical constraints are in binary form. We also illustrate the usage of the logic in the description of numerical constra…
The finite satisfiability problem of monadic second order logic is decidable only on classes of structures of bounded tree-width by the classic result of Seese (1991). We prove the following problem is decidable: Input: (i) A monadic second order logic sentence $α$, and (ii) a sentence $β$ in the two-variable fragment of first order logic extended with counting quantifiers. The vocabularies of $α$ and $β$ may intersect. Output: Is there a finite structure which satisfies $α\landβ$ such that the restriction of the structure to the vocabulary of $α$ has bounded tree-width? (The tree-width of the…
The paper proposes a derivation system for a logic of presuppositions as introduced by P. F. Strawson. It is based on truth-relevant logic described by M. Richard Diaz in 1981. In another paper I outlined a derivation system for t-relevant logic based on truth trees. The conclusion was that a tautology is truth-relevant iff all the variables in a tree are self-contradicted. It is possible that a tree terminates without all the variables self-contradicting themselves. In this case the pertaining formula is still a tautology, but not a truth-relevant tautology. This concept is extended to the pr…
According to a theorem of Courcelle monadic second-order logic and guarded second-order logic (where one can also quantify over sets of edges) have the same expressive power over the class of all countable $k$-sparse hypergraphs. In the first part of the present paper we extend this result to hypergraphs of arbitrary cardinality. In the second part, we present a generalisation dealing with methods to encode sets of vertices by single vertices.
Given a logic presented in a sequent calculus, a natural question is that of equivalence of proofs: to determine whether two given proofs are equated by any denotational semantics, ie any categorical interpretation of the logic compatible with its cut-elimination procedure. This notion can usually be captured syntactically by a set of rule permutations. Very generally, proofnets can be defined as combinatorial objects which provide canonical representatives of equivalence classes of proofs. In particular, the existence of proof nets for a logic provides a solution to the equivalence problem of…
We study the first-order model checking problem on two generalisations of pushdown graphs. The first class is the class of nested pushdown trees. The other is the class of collapsible pushdown graphs. Our main results are the following. First-order logic with reachability is uniformly decidable on nested pushdown trees. Considering first-order logic without reachability, we prove decidability in doubly exponential alternating time with linearly many alternations. First-order logic with regular reachability predicates is uniformly decidable on level 2 collapsible pushdown graphs. Moreover, nest…
A proof procedure, in the spirit of the sequent calculus, is proposed to check the validity of entailments between Separation Logic formulas combining inductively defined predicates denoted structures of bounded tree width and theory reasoning. The calculus is sound and complete, in the sense that a sequent is valid iff it admits a (possibly infinite) proof tree. We show that the procedure terminates in the two following cases: (i) When the inductive rules that define the predicates occurring on the left-hand side of the entailment terminate, in which case the proof tree is always finite. (ii)…
The satisfiability problem of the branching time logic CTL is studied in terms of computational complexity. Tight upper and lower bounds are provided for each temporal operator fragment. In parallel, the minimal model size is studied with a suitable notion of minimality. Thirdly, flat CTL is investigated, i.e., formulas with very low temporal operator nesting depth. A sharp dichotomy is shown in terms of complexity and minimal models: Temporal depth one has low expressive power, while temporal depth two is equivalent to full CTL.
We describe here a simple application of rational trees to the implementation of an interpreter for a procedural language written in a logic programming language. This is possible in languages designed to support rational trees (such as Prolog II and its descendants), but also in traditional Prolog, whose data structures are initially based on Herbrand terms, but in which implementations often omit the occurs check needed to avoid the creation of infinite data structures. We provide code implementing two interpreters, one of which needs non-occurs-check unification, which makes it faster (and …
Verification of properties of first order logic with two variables FO2 has been investigated in a number of contexts. Over arbitrary structures it is known to be decidable with NEXPTIME complexity, with finitely satisfiable formulas having exponential-sized models. Over word structures, where FO2 is known to have the same expressiveness as unary temporal logic, the same properties hold. Over finite labelled ordered trees FO2 is also of interest: it is known to have the same expressiveness as navigational XPath, a common query language for XML documents. Prior work on XPath and FO2 gives a 2EXP…
Propositional linear time temporal logic (LTL) is the standard temporal logic for computing applications and many reasoning techniques and tools have been developed for it. Tableaux for deciding satisfiability have existed since the 1980s. However, the tableaux for this logic do not look like traditional tree-shaped tableau systems and their processing is often quite complicated. We present a new simple traditional-style tree-shaped tableau for LTL and prove that it is sound and complete. As well as being simple to understand, to introduce to students and to use manually, it also seems simple …
We study the equivalence relation on states of labelled transition systems of satisfying the same formulas in Computation Tree Logic without the next state modality (CTL-X). This relation is obtained by De Nicola & Vaandrager by translating labelled transition systems to Kripke structures, while lifting the totality restriction on the latter. They characterised it as divergence sensitive branching bisimulation equivalence. We find that this equivalence fails to be a congruence for interleaving parallel composition. The reason is that the proposed application of CTL-X to non-total Kripke struct…
One of Courcelle's celebrated results states that if C is a class of graphs of bounded tree-width, then model-checking for monadic second order logic (MSO_2) is fixed-parameter tractable (fpt) on C by linear time parameterized algorithms, where the parameter is the tree-width plus the size of the formula. An immediate question is whether this is best possible or whether the result can be extended to classes of unbounded tree-width. In this paper we show that in terms of tree-width, the theorem cannot be extended much further. More specifically, we show that if C is a class of graphs which is c…
