Related papers: Universal First-Order Logic is Superfluous for NL,…
In the nineties Immerman and Medina initiated the search for syn- tactic tools to prove NP-completeness. In their work, amongst several results, they conjecture that the NP-completeness of a problem defined by the conjunction of a sentence…
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…
The primary purpose of this article is to show that a certain natural set of axioms yields a completeness result for continuous first-order logic. In particular, we show that in continuous first-order logic a set of formulae is (completely)…
Fagin defined the class $NP$ by the means of Existential Second-Order logic. Feder and Vardi expressed it (up to polynomial equivalence) by special fragments of Existential Second-Order logic (SNP), while the authors used forbidden expanded…
We introduce a proper display calculus for first-order logic, of which we prove soundness, completeness, conservativity, subformula property and cut elimination via a Belnap-style metatheorem. All inference rules are closed under uniform…
We study various formulations of the completeness of first-order logic phrased in constructive type theory and mechanised in the Coq proof assistant. Specifically, we examine the completeness of variants of classical and intuitionistic…
We study descriptive complexity of counting complexity classes in the range from #P to #$\cdot$NP. A corollary of Fagin's characterization of NP by existential second-order logic is that #P can be logically described as the class of…
We show that the first-order logical theory of the binary overlap-free words (and, more generally, the ${\alpha}$-free words for rational ${\alpha}$, $2 < {\alpha} \leq 7/3$), is decidable. As a consequence, many results previously obtained…
We present a simpler way than usual to deduce the completeness theorem for the second-oder classical logic from the first-order one. We also extend our method to the case of second-order intuitionistic logic.
We introduce syntactic modal operator $\BOX$ for \textit{being a thesis} into first-order logic. This logic is a modern realization of R. Carnap's old ideas on modality, as logical necessity (J. Symb. Logic, 1946) \cite{Ca46}. We place it…
This paper presents the following results on sets that are complete for NP. 1. If there is a problem in NP that requires exponential time at almost all lengths, then every many-one NP-complete set is complete under length-increasing…
We study the complexity of evaluating positive equality-free sentences of first-order (FO) logic over a fixed, finite structure B. This may be seen as a natural generalisation of the non-uniform quantified constraint satisfaction problem…
By Fagin's Theorem, NP contains precisely those problems that can be described by formulas starting with an existential second-order quantifier, followed by only first-order quantifiers (ESO formulas). Subsequent research refined this…
It is known that there exists a first-order sentence that holds in a finite group if and only if the group is soluble. Here it is shown that the corresponding statements with 'solubility' replaced by 'nilpotence' and 'perfectness', among…
We propose a generalization of first-order logic originating in a neglected work by C.C. Chang: a natural and generic correspondence language for any types of structures which can be recast as Set-coalgebras. We discuss axiomatization and…
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…
This paper proposes an alternative to standard first-order logic that seeks greater naturalness, generality, and semantic self-containment. The system removes the first-order restriction, avoids type hierarchies, and dispenses with external…
We describe simple algebraic and combinatorial characterisations of finite relational core structures admitting finitely many obstructions. As a consequence, we show that it is decidable to determine whether a constraint satisfaction…
In this paper we consider first-order logic theorem proving and model building via approximation and instantiation. Given a clause set we propose its approximation into a simplified clause set where satisfiability is decidable. The…
We present a unified categorical treatment of completeness theorems for several classical and intuitionistic infinitary logics with a proposed axiomatization. This provides new completeness theorems and subsumes previous ones by G\"odel,…