Related papers: Going higher in the First-order Quantifier Alterna…
Alternating quantifier depth is a natural measure of difficulty required to express first order logical sentences. We define a sequence of first order properties on rooted, locally finite trees in a recursive manner, and provide rigorous…
The dot-depth hierarchy of Brzozowski and Cohen classifies the star-free languages of finite words. By a theorem of McNaughton and Papert, these are also the first-order definable languages. The dot-depth rose to prominence following the…
It is well-known that every first-order property on words is expressible using at most three variables. The subclass of properties expressible with only two variables is also quite interesting and well-studied. We prove precise structure…
We give a simple new proof that regular languages defined by first-order sentences with no quantifier alteration can be defined by such sentences in which only regular atomic formulas appear. Earlier proofs of this fact relied on arguments…
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…
An important endeavor in computer science is to understand the expressive power of logical formalisms over discrete structures, such as words. Naturally, "understanding" is not a mathematical notion. This investigation requires therefore a…
We study fragments of dependence logic defined either by restricting the number k of universal quantifiers or the width of dependence atoms in formulas. We find the sublogics of existential second-order logic corresponding to these…
Exactly solving first-order constraints (i.e., first-order formulas over a certain predefined structure) can be a very hard, or even undecidable problem. In continuous structures like the real numbers it is promising to compute approximate…
Nominal Logic is a version of first-order logic with equality, name-binding, renaming via name-swapping and freshness of names. Contrarily to higher-order logic, bindable names, called atoms, and instantiable variables are considered as…
We can measure the complexity of a logical formula by counting the number of alternations between existential and universal quantifiers. Suppose that an elementary first-order formula $\varphi$ (in $\mathcal{L}_{\omega,\omega}$) is…
We study tree languages that can be defined in \Delta_2 . These are tree languages definable by a first-order formula whose quantifier prefix is forall exists, and simultaneously by a first-order formula whose quantifier prefix is . For the…
We study the expressive power of the two-variable fragment of order-invariant first-order logic. This logic departs from first-order logic in two ways: first, formulas are only allowed to quantify over two variables. Second, formulas can…
We look at classes of languages associated to the fragment of first-order logic B{\Sigma}1 which disallows quantifier alternations. Each class is defined by choosing the set of predicates on positions that may be used. Two key such…
One-dimensional fragment of first-order logic is obtained by restricting quantification to blocks of existential (universal) quantifiers that leave at most one variable free. We investigate this fragment over words and trees, presenting a…
We consider two-variable first-order logic $\text{FO}^2$ and its quantifier alternation hierarchies over both finite and infinite words. Our main results are forbidden patterns for deterministic automata (finite words) and for Carton-Michel…
We contribute to the refined understanding of the language-logic-algebra interplay in the context of first-order properties of countable words. We establish decidable algebraic characterizations of one variable fragment of FO as well as…
We study the logic obtained by endowing the language of first-order arithmetic with second-order measure quantifiers. This new kind of quantification allows us to express that the argument formula is true in a certain portion of all…
The theory of finite term algebras provides a natural framework to describe the semantics of functional languages. The ability to efficiently reason about term algebras is essential to automate program analysis and verification for…
We stratify intuitionistic first-order logic over $(\forall,\to)$ into fragments determined by the alternation of positive and negative occurrences of quantifiers (Mints hierarchy). We study the decidability and complexity of these…
This article fits in the area of research that investigates the application of topological duality methods to problems that appear in theoretical computer science. One of the eventual goals of this approach is to derive results in…