We analyse the complexity of learning first-order queries in a model-theoretic framework for supervised learning introduced by (Grohe and Turán, TOCS 2004). Previous research on the complexity of learning in this framework focussed on the question of when learning is possible in time sublinear in the background structure.
Here we study the parameterized complexity of the learning problem. We have two main results. The first is a hardness result, showing that learning first-order queries is at least as hard as the corresponding model-checking problem, which implies that on general structures it is hard for the parameterized complexity class AW[*]. Our second main contribution is a fixed-parameter tractable agnostic PAC learning algorithm for first-order queries over sparse relational data (more precisely, over nowhere dense background structures).
In this paper, we investigate the parameterized complexity of model checking for Dependence Logic which is a well studied logic in the area of Team Semantics. We start with a list of nine immediate parameterizations for this problem, namely: the number of disjunctions (i.e., splits)/(free) variables/universal quantifiers, formula-size, the tree-width of the Gaifman graph of the input structure, the size of the universe/team, and the arity of dependence atoms. We present a comprehensive picture of the parameterized complexity of model checking and obtain a division of the problem into tractable…
This paper shows that a classic metalogical framework, including all Boolean operators, can be used to support the development of a metric behavioural theory for Markov processes. Previously, only intuitionistic frameworks or frameworks without negation and logical implication have been developed to fulfill this task. The focus of this paper is on continuous Markovian logic (CML), a logic that characterizes stochastic bisimulation of Markov processes with an arbitrary measurable state space and continuous-time transitions. For a parameter epsilon>0 interpreted as observational error, we introd…
We continue the investigation of parameterized extensions of Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) that retain the attractive algorithmic properties of LTL: a polynomial space model checking algorithm and a doubly-exponential time algorithm for solving games. Alur et al. and Kupferman et al. showed that this is the case for Parametric LTL (PLTL) and PROMPT-LTL respectively, which have temporal operators equipped with variables that bound their scope in time. Later, this was also shown to be true for Parametric LDL (PLDL), which extends PLTL to be able to express all omega-regular properties. Here, we ge…
Reactive synthesis is an automatic way to translate a human intention expressed in some logic into a system of some kind. This thesis has two parts, devoted to logic and to systems. In Part I, we develop two new approaches to CTL* synthesis. The first approach consists of two extensions of the SMT-based bounded synthesis: one follows bottom-up CTL* model checking, another one follows the automata framework. The second approach reduces CTL* synthesis to LTL synthesis. The reduction turns any LTL synthesiser into a CTL* synthesiser. The two approaches were implemented and are available online. I…
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…
We introduce a variant of modal logic, dubbed EXISTENTIAL COUNTING MODAL LOGIC (ECML), which captures a vast majority of problems known to be tractable in single exponential time when parameterized by treewidth. It appears that all these results can be subsumed by the theorem that model checking of ECML admits an algorithm with such complexity. We extend ECML by adding connectivity requirements and, using the Cut&Count technique introduced by Cygan et al. [4], prove that problems expressible in the extension are also tractable in single exponential time when parameterized by treewidth; however…
Institute for Logic, Language and Computation（逻辑、语言与计算研究所）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）
Description logics are knowledge representation languages that have been designed to strike a balance between expressivity and computational tractability. Many different description logics have been developed, and numerous computational problems for these logics have been studied for their computational complexity. However, essentially all complexity analyses of reasoning problems for description logics use the one-dimensional framework of classical complexity theory. The multi-dimensional framework of parameterized complexity theory is able to provide a much more detailed image of the complex…
We consider the synthesis of distributed implementations for specifications in parameterized temporal logics such as PROMPT-LTL, which extends LTL by temporal operators equipped with parameters that bound their scope. For single process synthesis it is well-established that such parametric extensions do not increase worst-case complexities. For synchronous distributed systems we show that, despite being more powerful, the realizability problem for PROMPT-LTL is not harder than its LTL counterpart. For asynchronous systems we have to express scheduling assumptions and therefore consider an assu…
We investigate the impact of spontaneous movement in the complexity of verification problems for an automata-based protocol model of networks with selective broadcast communication. We first consider reachability of an error state and show that parameterized verification is decidable with polynomial complexity. We then move to richer queries and show how the complexity changes when considering properties with negation or cardinality constraints.
Institute for Logic, Language and Computation（逻辑、语言与计算研究所）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）；Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour（唐德斯大脑、认知与行为研究所）；Radboud University（拉德堡德大学）
In this paper we introduce a computational-level model of theory of mind (ToM) based on dynamic epistemic logic (DEL), and we analyze its computational complexity. The model is a special case of DEL model checking. We provide a parameterized complexity analysis, considering several aspects of DEL (e.g., number of agents, size of preconditions, etc.) as parameters. We show that model checking for DEL is PSPACE-hard, also when restricted to single-pointed models and S5 relations, thereby solving an open problem in the literature. Our approach is aimed at formalizing current intractability claims…
We study the synthesis problem for systems with a parameterized number of processes. As in the classical case due to Church, the system selects actions depending on the program run so far, with the aim of fulfilling a given specification. The difficulty is that, at the same time, the environment executes actions that the system cannot control. In contrast to the case of fixed, finite alphabets, here we consider the case of parameterized alphabets. An alphabet reflects the number of processes that are static but unknown. The synthesis problem then asks whether there is a finite number of proces…
We continue the investigation of parameterized extensions of Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) that retain the attractive algorithmic properties of LTL: a polynomial space model checking algorithm and a doubly-exponential time algorithm for solving games. Alur et al. and Kupferman et al. showed that this is the case for Parametric LTL (PLTL) and PROMPT-LTL respectively, which have temporal operators equipped with variables that bound their scope in time. Later, this was also shown to be true for Parametric LDL (PLDL), which extends PLTL to be able to express all omega-regular properties. Here, we ge…
In this paper we investigate to which extent a very simple and natural "reachability as deducibility" approach, originated in the research in formal methods in security, is applicable to the automated verification of large classes of infinite state and parameterized systems. The approach is based on modeling the reachability between (parameterized) states as deducibility between suitable encodings of states by formulas of first-order predicate logic. The verification of a safety property is reduced to a pure logical problem of finding a countermodel for a first-order formula. The later task is…
We initiate a program of parameterized proof complexity that aims to provide evidence that FPT is different from W[1]. A similar program already exists for the classes W[2] and W[SAT]. We contrast these programs and prove upper and lower bounds for W[1]-parameterized Resolution.
In this article, we study the complexity of weighted team definability for logics with team semantics. This problem is a natural analogue of one of the most studied problems in parameterized complexity, the notion of weighted Fagin-definability, which is formulated in terms of satisfaction of first-order formulas with free relation variables. We focus on the parameterized complexity of weighted team definability for a fixed formula phi of central team-based logics. Given a first-order structure A and the parameter value k as input, the question is to determine whether A,T models phi for some t…
In this paper we deal with verification of safety properties of parameterized systems with a tree topology. The verification problem is translated to a purely logical problem of finding a finite countermodel for a first-order formula, which further resolved by a generic finite model finding procedure. A finite countermodel method is shown is at least as powerful as regular tree model checking and as the methods based on monotonic abstraction and backwards symbolic reachability. The practical efficiency of the method is illustrated on a set of examples taken from the literature.
We study properties of classes of closure operators and closure systems parameterized by systems of isotone Galois connections. The parameterizations express stronger requirements on idempotency and monotony conditions of closure operators. The present approach extends previous approaches to fuzzy closure operators which appeared in analysis of object-attribute data with graded attributes and reasoning with if-then rules in graded setting and is also related to analogous results developed in linear temporal logic. In the paper, we present foundations of the operators and include examples of ge…
We consider concurrent systems consisting of replicated finite-state processes that synchronize via joint interactions in a network with user-defined topology. The system is specified using a resource logic with a multiplicative connective and inductively defined predicates, reminiscent of Separation Logic. The problem we consider is if a given formula in this logic defines an invariant, namely whether any model of the formula, following an arbitrary firing sequence of interactions, is transformed into another model of the same formula. This property, called \emph{havoc invariance}, is quintes…
In this article, we study parameterized complexity theory from the perspective of logic, or more specifically, descriptive complexity theory. We propose to consider parameterized model-checking problems for various fragments of first-order logic as generic parameterized problems and show how this approach can be useful in studying both fixed-parameter tractability and intractability. For example, we establish the equivalence between the model-checking for existential first-order logic, the homomorphism problem for relational structures, and the substructure isomorphism problem. Our main tracta…
The elimination distance to some target graph property P is a general graph modification parameter introduced by Bulian and Dawar. We initiate the study of elimination distances to graph properties expressible in first-order logic. We delimit the problem's fixed-parameter tractability by identifying sufficient and necessary conditions on the structure of prefixes of first-order logic formulas. Our main result is the following meta-theorem: for every graph property P expressible by a first order-logic formula ϕ\in Σ_3, that is, of the form ϕ=\exists x_1\exists x_2\cdots \exists x_r \forall y_1\…
We survey some results on the automatic verification of parameterized programs without identities. These are systems composed of arbitrarily many components, all of them running exactly the same finite-state program. We discuss the complexity of deciding that no component reaches an unsafe state. The note is addressed at theoretical computer scientists in general.
We perform a fundamental investigation of the complexity of conjunctive query evaluation from the perspective of parameterized complexity. We classify sets of boolean conjunctive queries according to the complexity of this problem. Previous work showed that a set of conjunctive queries is fixed-parameter tractable precisely when the set is equivalent to a set of queries having bounded treewidth. We present a fine classification of query sets up to parameterized logarithmic space reduction. We show that, in the bounded treewidth regime, there are three complexity degrees and that the properties…
We propose a method for inferring \emph{parameterized regular types} for logic programs as solutions for systems of constraints over sets of finite ground Herbrand terms (set constraint systems). Such parameterized regular types generalize \emph{parametric} regular types by extending the scope of the parameters in the type definitions so that such parameters can relate the types of different predicates. We propose a number of enhancements to the procedure for solving the constraint systems that improve the precision of the type descriptions inferred. The resulting algorithm, together with a pr…
We consider parameterized concurrent systems consisting of a finite but unknown number of components, obtained by replicating a given set of finite state automata. Components communicate by executing atomic interactions whose participants update their states simultaneously. We introduce an interaction logic to specify both the type of interactions (e.g.\ rendez-vous, broadcast) and the topology of the system (e.g.\ pipeline, ring). The logic can be easily embedded in monadic second order logic of finitely many successors, and is therefore decidable. Proving safety properties of such a paramete…
We present an almost complete classification of the parameterized complexity of all operator fragments of the satisfiability problem in computation tree logic CTL. The investigated parameterization is the sum of temporal depth and structural pathwidth. The classification shows a dichotomy between W[1]-hard and fixed-parameter tractable fragments. The only real operator fragment which is confirmed to be in FPT is the fragment containing solely AX. Also we prove a generalization of Courcelle's theorem to infinite signatures which will be used to proof the FPT-membership case.
The aim of the paper is to examine the computational complexity and algorithmics of enumeration, the task to output all solutions of a given problem, from the point of view of parameterized complexity. First we define formally different notions of efficient enumeration in the context of parameterized complexity. Second we show how different algorithmic paradigms can be used in order to get parameter-efficient enumeration algorithms in a number of examples. These paradigms use well-known principles from the design of parameterized decision as well as enumeration techniques, like for instance ke…
Most modern (classical) programming languages support recursion. Recursion has also been successfully applied to the design of several quantum algorithms and introduced in a couple of quantum programming languages. So, it can be expected that recursion will become one of the fundamental paradigms of quantum programming. Several program logics have been developed for verification of quantum while-programs. However, there are as yet no general methods for reasoning about (mutual) recursive procedures and ancilla quantum data structure in quantum computing (with measurement). We fill the gap in t…
In the maximum satisfiability problem (MAX-SAT) we are given a propositional formula in conjunctive normal form and have to find an assignment that satisfies as many clauses as possible. We study the parallel parameterized complexity of various versions of MAX-SAT and provide the first constant-time algorithms parameterized either by the solution size or by the allowed excess relative to some guarantee ("above guarantee" versions). For the dual parameterized version where the parameter is the number of clauses we are allowed to leave unsatisfied, we present the first parallel algorithm for MAX…
Today's propositional satisfiability (SAT) solvers are extremely powerful and can be used as an efficient back-end for solving NP-complete problems. However, many fundamental problems in knowledge representation and reasoning are located at the second level of the Polynomial Hierarchy or even higher, and hence polynomial-time transformations to SAT are not possible, unless the hierarchy collapses. Recent research shows that in certain cases one can break through these complexity barriers by fixed-parameter tractable (fpt) reductions which exploit structural aspects of problem instances in term…
Brambles were introduced as the dual notion to treewidth, one of the most central concepts of the graph minor theory of Robertson and Seymour. Recently, Grohe and Marx showed that there are graphs G, in which every bramble of order larger than the square root of the treewidth is of exponential size in |G|. On the positive side, they show the existence of polynomial-sized brambles of the order of the square root of the treewidth, up to log factors. We provide the first polynomial time algorithm to construct a bramble in general graphs and achieve this bound, up to log-factors. We use this algor…
Leibniz Universität Hannover（莱布尼茨汉诺威大学）；Jönköping University（延雪平大学）
Logic-based argumentation is a well-established formalism modelling nonmonotonic reasoning. It has been playing a major role in AI for decades, now. Informally, a set of formulas is the support for a given claim if it is consistent, subset-minimal, and implies the claim. In such a case, the pair of the support and the claim together is called an argument. In this paper, we study the propositional variants of the following three computational tasks studied in argumentation: ARG (exists a support for a given claim with respect to a given set of formulas), ARG-Check (is a given set a support for …
A decision problem is called parameterized if its input is a pair of strings. One of these strings is referred to as a parameter. The problem: given a propositional logic program P and a non-negative integer k, decide whether P has a stable model of size no more than k, is an example of a parameterized decision problem with k serving as a parameter. Parameterized problems that are NP-complete often become solvable in polynomial time if the parameter is fixed. The problem to decide whether a program P has a stable model of size no more than k, where k is fixed and not a part of input, can be so…
Most parameterized complexity classes are defined in terms of a parameterized version of the Boolean satisfiability problem (the so-called weighted satisfiability problem). For example, Downey and Fellow's W-hierarchy is of this form. But there are also classes, for example, the A-hierarchy, that are more naturally characterised in terms of model-checking problems for certain fragments of first-order logic. Downey, Fellows, and Regan were the first to establish a connection between the two formalisms by giving a characterisation of the W-hierarchy in terms of first-order model-checking problem…
The problem of $τ$-synthesis consists in deciding whether a given directed labeled graph $A$ is isomorphic to the reachability graph of a Boolean Petri net $N$ of type $τ$. In case of a positive decision, $N$ should be constructed. For many Boolean types of nets, the problem is NP-complete. This paper deals with a special variant of $τ$-synthesis that imposes restrictions for the target net $N$: we investigate \emph{dependency $d$-restricted $τ$-synthesis (DR$τ$S)} where each place of $N$ can influence and be influenced by at most $d$ transitions. For a type $τ$, if $τ$-synthesis is NP-complet…
We associate a graph with a 1-safe Petri net and study the parameterized complexity of various problems with parameters derived from the graph. With treewidth as the parameter, we give W[1]-hardness results for many problems about 1-safe Petri nets. As a corollary, this proves a conjecture of Downey et. al. about the hardness of some graph pebbling problems. We consider the parameter benefit depth (that is known to be helpful in getting better algorithms for general Petri nets) and again give W[1]-hardness results for various problems on 1-safe Petri nets. We also consider the stronger paramet…
