Logical properties of random graphs from small addable classes

We consider monadic second order logic (MSO) and the modal μ-calculus (Lμ) over transition systems (Kripke structures). It is well known that every class of transition systems which is definable by a sentence of Lμ is definable by a sentence of MSO as well. It will be shown that the converse is also true for an important fragment of MSO: every class of transition systems which is MSO-definable and which is closed under bisimulation - i.e., the sentence does not distinguish between bisimilar models - is also Lμ-definable. Hence we obtain the following expressive completeness result: the bisimulation invariant fragment of MSO and Lμ are equivalent. The result was proved by David Janin and Igor Walukiewicz. Our presentation is based on their article [91]. The main step is the development of automata-based characterizations of Lμ over arbitrary transition systems and of MSO over transition trees (see also Chapter 16). It turns out that there is a general notion of automaton subsuming both characterizations, so we obtain a common ground to compare these two logics. Moreover we need the notion of the ω-unravelling for a transition system, on the one hand to obtain a bisimilar transition tree and on the other hand to increase the possibilities of choosing successors.

One of the previous articles in this column was devoted to the zero-one laws for a number of logics playing prominent role in finite model theory: first-order logic FO, the extension FO+LFP of first-order logic with the least fixed-point operator, and the infinitary logic L∞,ω. Recently Shelah proved a new, powerful, and surprising zero-one law. His proof uses so-called strong extension axioms. Here we formulate Shelah’s zero-one law and prove a few facts about these axioms. In the process we give a simple proof for a “large deviation” inequality a la Chernoff. 1 Shelah’s Zero-One Law Quisani: What are you doing, guys? Author: We2 are proving a zero-one law which is due to Shelah. Q: Didn’t Shelah prove the law? A: Oh yes, he proved it all right, and even wrote it down [14]. Q: So what is the problem? Can’t you read his proof? 1Mathematics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109, USA; partially supported by a grant from Microsoft Research. 2The record of the conversation was simplified by blending the two authors into one who prefers “we” to “I”.

We study the language-theoretical aspects of parameterized communicating automata (PCAs), in which processes communicate via rendez-vous. A given PCA can be run on any topology of bounded degree such as pipelines, rings, ranked trees, and grids. We show that, under a context bound, which restricts the local behavior of each process, PCAs are effectively complementable. Complementability is considered a key aspect of robust automata models and can, in particular, be exploited for verification. In this paper, we use it to obtain a characterization of context-bounded PCAs in terms of monadic second-order (MSO) logic. As the emptiness problem for context-bounded PCAs is decidable for the classes of pipelines, rings, and trees, their model-checking problem wrt. MSO properties also becomes decidable. While previous work on model checking parameterized systems typically uses temporal logics without next operator, our MSO logic allows one to express several natural next modalities.

On the expressiveness of second-order spider diagrams

The paper deals with logically definable families of sets (or point-sets) of rational numbers. In particular we are interested whether the families definable over the real line with a unary predicate for the rationals are definable over the rational order alone. Let φ(X,Y ) and ψ(Y ) range over formulas in the first-order monadic language of order. Let Q be the set of rationals and F be the family of subsets J of Q such that φ(Q,J) holds over the real line. The question arises whether, for every φ, F can be defined by means of an appropriate ψ(Y ) interpreted over the rational order. We answer the question negatively. The answer remains negative if the firstorder logic is strengthen to weak monadic second-order logic. The answer is positive for the restricted version of monadic second-order logic where set quantifiers range over open sets. The case of full monadic second-order logic remains open.

In this chapter we present a method for obtaining lower bounds on the computational complexity of logical theories, and give several illustrations of its use. This method is an extension of widely used procedures for proving the recursive undecidability of logical theories. (See Rabin [1965] and Eršov et al. [1965].) One important aspect of this method is that it is based on a family of inseparability results for certain logical problems, closely related to the well-known inseparability result of Trakhtenbrot (as refined by Vaught), that no recursive set separates the logically valid sentences from those which are false in some finite model, as long as the underlying language has at least one non-unary relation symbol. By using these inseparability results as a foundation, we are able to obtain hereditary lower bounds, i.e., bounds which apply uniformly to all subtheories of the theory. The second important aspect of this method is that we use interpretations to transfer lower bounds from one theory to another. By doing this we eliminate the need to code machine computations into the models of the theory being studied. (The coding of computations is done once and for all in proving the inseparability results.) By using interpretations, attention is centred on much simpler definability considerations, viz., what kinds of binary relations on large finite sets can be defined using short formulas in models of the theory. This is conceptually much simpler than other approaches that have been proposed for obtaining lower bounds, such as the method of bounded concatenations of Fleischmann et al. [1977]. We will deal primarily with theories in first-order logic and monadic second-order logic.

The Specker–Blatter theorem does not hold for quaternary relations

We establish that every monadic second-order logic (MSO) formula on graphs with bounded treedepth is decidable in a constant number of rounds within the CONGEST model. To our knowledge, this marks the first meta-theorem regarding distributed model-checking. Various optimization problems on graphs are expressible in MSO. Examples include determining whether a graph G has a clique of size k, whether it admits a coloring with k colors, whether it contains a graph H as a subgraph or minor, or whether terminal vertices in G could be connected via vertex-disjoint paths. Our meta-theorem significantly enhances the work of Bousquet et al. [PODC 2022], which was focused on distributed certification of MSO on graphs with bounded treedepth. Moreover, our results can be extended to solving optimization and counting problems expressible in MSO, in graphs of bounded treedepth.

We introduce a formal logical language, called conditional probability logic (CPL), which extends first-order logic and which can express probabilities, conditional probabilities and which can compare conditional probabilities. Intuitively speaking, although formal details are different, CPL can express the same kind of statements as some languages which have been considered in the artificial intelligence community. We also consider a way of making precise the notion of lifted Bayesian network, where this notion is a type of (lifted) probabilistic graphical model used in machine learning, data mining and artificial intelligence. A lifted Bayesian network (in the sense defined here) determines, in a natural way, a probability distribution on the set of all structures (in the sense of first-order logic) with a common finite domain D. Our main result (Theorem 3.14) is that for every “noncritical” CPL-formula φ(x¯) there is a quantifier-free formula φ⁎(x¯) which is “almost surely” equivalent to φ(x¯) as the cardinality of D tends towards infinity. This is relevant for the problem of making probabilistic inferences on large domains D, because (a) the problem of evaluating, by “brute force”, the probability of φ(x¯) being true for some sequence d¯ of elements from D has, in general, (highly) exponential time complexity in the cardinality of D, and (b) the corresponding probability for the quantifier-free φ⁎(x¯) depends only on the lifted Bayesian network and not on D. Some conclusions regarding the computational complexity of finding φ⁎ are given in Remark 3.17. The main result has two corollaries, one of which is a convergence law (and zero-one law) for noncritial CPL-formulas.

We investigate local and global paradigms of reasoning about distributed behaviours, modelled as Mazurkiewicz traces, in the context of first-order and monadic second-order logics. We describe new normal forms for properties expressible in these logics. The first normal form, surprisingly, yields a decomposition of a global property as a boolean combination of local properties. The second normal form strengthens McNaughton's theorem and states that global properties of infinite behaviours may also be described as boolean combinations of recurring properties of finite local histories of the behaviours. We briefly touch upon some of the interesting applications of these normal forms.

Our main result is a succinct counterpoint to Courcelle's meta-theorem as follows: every cw-nontrivial monadic second-order (MSO) property is either NP-hard or coNP-hard over graphs given by succinct representations. Succint representations are Boolean circuits computing the adjacency relation. Cw-nontrivial properties are those which have infinitely many models and infinitely many countermodels with bounded cliquewidth. Moreover, we explore what happens when the cw-nontriviality condition is dropped and show that, under a reasonable complexity assumption, the previous dichotomy fails, even for questions expressible in first-order logic.

Vertex-minors, monadic second-order logic, and a conjecture by Seese

Graph Operations, Graph Transformations and Monadic Second-Order Logic A survey

Graph Operations, Graph Transformations and Monadic Second-Order Logic:: A survey

Logical transductions provide a very useful tool to encode classes of structures inside other classes of structures. In this paper we study first-order (FO) transductions and the quasiorder they induce on infinite classes of finite graphs. Surprisingly, this quasiorder is very complex, though shaped by the locality properties of first-order logic. This contrasts with the conjectured simplicity of the monadic second order (MSO) transduction quasiorder. We first establish a local normal form for FO transductions, which is of independent interest. Then we prove that the quotient partial order is a bounded distributive join-semilattice, and that the subposet of \emph{additive} classes is also a bounded distributive join-semilattice. The FO transduction quasiorder has a great expressive power, and many well studied class properties can be defined using it. We apply these structural properties to prove, among other results, that FO transductions of the class of paths are exactly perturbations of classes with bounded bandwidth, that the local variants of monadic stability and monadic dependence are equivalent to their (standard) non-local versions, and that the classes with pathwidth at most $k$, for $k\geq 1$ form a strict hierarchy in the FO transduction quasiorder.