Related papers: On FO2 quantifier alternation over words
We introduce the finite-horizon first-order rank profile of a language $L \subseteq \Sigma^*$: the least quantifier rank needed by an $\mathrm{FO}[<]$ sentence to classify membership in $L$ correctly on all words of length at most $n$. The…
For fragments L of first-order logic (FO) with counting quantifiers, we consider the definability problem, which asks whether a given L-formula can be equivalently expressed by a formula in some fragment of L without counting, and the more…
The call-by-value language RML may be viewed as a canonical restriction of Standard ML to ground-type references, augmented by a "bad variable" construct in the sense of Reynolds. We consider the fragment of (finitary) RML terms of order at…
We introduce a novel decidable fragment of first-order logic. The fragment is one-dimensional in the sense that quantification is limited to applications of blocks of existential (universal) quantifiers such that at most one variable…
Multi-letter {\it quantum finite automata} (QFAs) were a quantum variant of classical {\it one-way multi-head finite automata} (J. Hromkovi\v{c}, Acta Informatica 19 (1983) 377-384), and it has been shown that this new one-way QFAs…
We study the positive logic FO+ on finite words, and its fragments, pursuing and refining the work initiated in [Kuperberg 2023]. First, we transpose notorious logic equivalences into positive first-order logic: FO+ is equivalent to LTL+ ,…
We study Two-Variable First-Order Logic, FO2, under semantic constraints that model hierarchically structured data. Our first logic extends FO2 with a linear order < and a chain of increasingly coarser equivalence relations E_1, E_2, ... .…
It is known due to the work of Van den Broeck et al [KR, 2014] that weighted first-order model counting (WFOMC) in the two-variable fragment of first-order logic can be solved in time polynomial in the number of domain elements. In this…
We prove Los conjecture = Morley theorem in ZF, with the same characterization (of first order countable theories categorical in aleph_alpha for some (equivalently for every) ordinal alpha>0. Another central result here is, in this context:…
We describe the layer of quantifier alternation depth at most one of the quantifier completion of a Boolean doctrine over a small category. This amounts to a doctrinal version of Herbrand's theorem for formulas with quantifier alternation…
It was proved by Sela and by the authors that every formula in the theory of a free group $F$ is equivalent to a boolean combination of $\exists\forall$-formulas. We also proved that the elementary theory of a free group is decidable (there…
Over finite words, languages of dot-depth one are expressively complete for alternation-free first-order logic. This fragment is also known as the Boolean closure of existential first-order logic. Here, the atomic formulas comprise order,…
This article contains ideas and their elaboration for quantifiers, which appeared after checking in practice the experimental language of the formal knowledge representation YAFOLL [1]: - looking at for_all and exists quantifiers as…
A new class of languages of infinite words is introduced, called the max-regular languages, extending the class of $\omega$-regular languages. The class has two equivalent descriptions: in terms of automata (a type of deterministic counter…
We consider a language together with the subword relation, the cover relation, and regular predicates. For such structures, we consider the extension of first-order logic by threshold- and modulo-counting quantifiers. Depending on the…
This paper explores the fine-grained structure of classes of regular languages maintainable in fragments of first-order logic within the dynamic descriptive complexity framework of Patnaik and Immerman. A result by Hesse states that the…
The number of quantifiers needed to express first-order (FO) properties is captured by two-player combinatorial games called multi-structural games. We analyze these games on binary strings with an ordering relation, using a technique we…
Automatic structures are first-order structures whose universe and relations can be represented as regular languages. It follows from the standard closure properties of regular languages that the first-order theory of an automatic structure…
We establish the strictness of several set quantifier alternation hierarchies that are based on modal logic, evaluated on various classes of finite graphs. This extends to the modal setting a celebrated result of Matz, Schweikardt and…
We present new results on realtime alternating, private alternating, and quantum alternating automaton models. Firstly, we show that the emptiness problem for alternating one-counter automata on unary alphabets is undecidable. Then, we…