Definitions with no quantifier alternation
Logic
2007-05-23 v2
Abstract
Let be the minimum quantifier depth of a first order sentence that defines a graph up to isomorphism. Let be the version of where we do not allow quantifier alternations in . Define to be the minimum of over all graphs of order . We prove that for all we have , where is equal to the minimum number of iterations of the binary logarithm needed to bring to 1 or below. The upper bound is obtained by constructing special graphs with modular decomposition of very small depth.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.math/0405326,
title = {Definitions with no quantifier alternation},
author = {Oleg Pikhurko and Joel Spencer and Oleg Verbitsky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0405326},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
24 pages, we complement the lower bound proved in the first version with a tight upper bound. The title of the paper has been changed