Undecidability of satisfiability in the algebra of finite binary relations with union, composition, and difference
Logic in Computer Science
2014-06-03 v1 Databases
Abstract
We consider expressions built up from binary relation names using the operators union, composition, and set difference. We show that it is undecidable to test whether a given such expression is finitely satisfiable, i.e., whether there exist finite binary relations that can be substituted for the relation names so that evaluates to a nonempty result. This result already holds in restriction to expressions that mention just a single relation name, and where the difference operator can be nested at most once.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1406.0349,
title = {Undecidability of satisfiability in the algebra of finite binary relations with union, composition, and difference},
author = {Tony Tan and Jan Van den Bussche and Xiaowang Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.0349},
year = {2014}
}