English

Definitions with no quantifier alternation

Logic 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

Let D(G)D(G) be the minimum quantifier depth of a first order sentence Φ\Phi that defines a graph GG up to isomorphism. Let D0(G)D_0(G) be the version of D(G)D(G) where we do not allow quantifier alternations in Φ\Phi. Define q0(n)q_0(n) to be the minimum of D0(G)D_0(G) over all graphs GG of order nn. We prove that for all nn we have lognloglogn1q0(n)logn+22\log^*n-\log^*\log^*n-1\le q_0(n)\le \log^*n+22, where logn\log^*n is equal to the minimum number of iterations of the binary logarithm needed to bring nn 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