English

On Expansions of Monadic Second-Order Logic with Dynamical Predicates

Logic in Computer Science 2025-07-23 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

Expansions of the monadic second-order (MSO) theory of the structure N;<\langle \mathbb{N} ; < \rangle have been a fertile and active area of research ever since the publication of the seminal papers of B\"uchi and Elgot & Rabin on the subject in the 1960s. In the present paper, we establish decidability of the MSO theory of N;<,P\langle \mathbb{N} ; <,P \rangle, where PP ranges over a large class of unary ''dynamical'' predicates, i.e., sets of non-negative values assumed by certain integer linear recurrence sequences. One of our key technical tools is the novel concept of (effective) prodisjunctivity, which we expect may also find independent applications further afield.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.16581,
  title  = {On Expansions of Monadic Second-Order Logic with Dynamical Predicates},
  author = {Joris Nieuwveld and Joël Ouaknine},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.16581},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Full version of a paper accepted to MFCS 2025

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:13:25.548Z