Related papers: On the Complexity of Existential Positive Queries
We study the problem of checking whether an existential sentence (that is, a first-order sentence in prefix form built using existential quantifiers and all Boolean connectives) is true in a finite partially ordered set (in short, a poset).…
We study first-order model checking, by which we refer to the problem of deciding whether or not a given first-order sentence is satisfied by a given finite structure. In particular, we aim to understand on which sets of sentences this…
In this article, we study parameterized complexity theory from the perspective of logic, or more specifically, descriptive complexity theory. We propose to consider parameterized model-checking problems for various fragments of first-order…
Let gamma be a (not necessarily finite) structure with a finite relational signature. We prove that deciding whether a given existential positive sentence holds in gamma is in Logspace or complete for the class CSP(gamma)_NP under…
In a seminal paper from 1985, Sistla and Clarke showed that the model-checking problem for Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) is either NP-complete or PSPACE-complete, depending on the set of temporal operators used. If, in contrast, the set of…
We study the computational problem of checking whether a quantified conjunctive query (a first-order sentence built using only conjunction as Boolean connective) is true in a finite poset (a reflexive, antisymmetric, and transitive directed…
The fixed-template constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) can be seen as the problem of deciding whether a given primitive positive first-order sentence is true in a fixed structure (also called model). We study a class of problems that…
The class of problems complete for NP via first-order reductions is known to be characterized by existential second-order sentences of a fixed form. All such sentences are built around the so-called generalized IS-form of the sentence that…
We study the complexity of the model checking problem, for fixed model A, over certain fragments L of first-order logic. These are sometimes known as the expression complexities of L. We obtain various complexity classification theorems for…
Asking which sets are fixed-parameter tractable for a given parameterization constitutes much of the current research in parameterized complexity theory. This approach faces some of the core difficulties in complexity theory. By focussing…
We present initial limit Datalog, a new extensible class of constrained Horn clauses for which the satisfiability problem is decidable. The class may be viewed as a generalisation to higher-order logic (with a simple restriction on types)…
The parameterized model-checking problem for a class of first-order sentences (queries) asks to decide whether a given sentence from the class holds true in a given relational structure (database); the parameter is the length of the…
We argue that parameterized complexity is a useful tool with which to study global constraints. In particular, we show that many global constraints which are intractable to propagate completely have natural parameters which make them…
Existential positive formulas form a fragment of first-order logic that includes and is semantically equivalent to unions of conjunctive queries, one of the most important and well-studied classes of queries in database theory. We consider…
Argumentation frameworks, consisting of arguments and an attack relation representing conflicts, are fundamental for formally studying reasoning under conflicting information. We use methods from mathematical logic, specifically…
We investigate infinitary wellfounded systems for linear logic with fixed points, with transfinite branching rules indexed by some closure ordinal $\alpha$ for fixed points. Our main result is that provability in the system for some…
Motivated by the problem of finding finite versions of classical incompleteness theorems, we present some conjectures that go beyond ${\bf NP\neq co NP}$. These conjectures formally connect computational complexity with the difficulty of…
Many fundamental problems in artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, and verification involve reasoning about sets and relations between sets and can be modeled as set constraint satisfaction problems (set CSPs). Such problems…
We prove that the model checking problem for the existential fragment of first-order (FO) logic on partially ordered sets is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) with respect to the formula and the width of a poset (the maximum size of an…
Automated reasoning about uncertain knowledge has many applications. One difficulty when developing such systems is the lack of a completely satisfactory integration of logic and probability. We address this problem directly. Expressive…