Related papers: Red Spider Meets a Rainworm: Conjunctive Query Fin…
We solve a well known, long-standing open problem in relational databases theory, showing that the conjunctive query determinacy problem (in its "unrestricted" version) is undecidable.
For a given set of queries (which are expressions in some query language) $\mathcal{Q}=\{Q_1$, $Q_2, \ldots Q_k\}$ and for another query $Q_0$ we say that $\mathcal{Q}$ determines $Q_0$ if -- informally speaking -- for every database…
Using a novel rewriting problem, we show that several natural decision problems about finite automata are undecidable (i.e., recursively unsolvable). In contrast, we also prove three related problems are decidable. We apply one result to…
Query Containment Problem (QCP) is a fundamental decision problem in query processing and optimization. While QCP has for a long time been completely understood for the case of set semantics, decidability of QCP for conjunctive queries…
In our paper [G{\l}uch, Marcinkowski, Ostropolski-Nalewaja, LICS ACM, 2018] we have solved an old problem stated in [Calvanese, De Giacomo, Lenzerini, Vardi, SPDS ACM, 2000] showing that query determinacy is undecidable for Regular Path…
Query Containment Problem (QCP) is one of the most fundamental decision problems in database query processing and optimization. Complexity of QCP for conjunctive queries (QCP-CQ) has been fully understood since 1970s. But, as Chaudhuri and…
We show that all--instances termination of chase is undecidable. More precisely, there is no algorithm deciding, for a given set $\cal T$ consisting of Tuple Generating Dependencies (a.k.a. Datalog$^\exists$ program), whether the $\cal…
In their classical 1993 paper [CV93] Chaudhuri and Vardi notice that some fundamental database theory results and techniques fail to survive when we try to see query answers as bags (multisets) of tuples rather than as sets of tuples. But…
We show that the problem `whether a finite set of regular-linear axioms defines a rigid theory' is undecidable.
The satisfiability problem for SPARQL patterns is undecidable in general, since the expressive power of SPARQL 1.0 is comparable with that of the relational algebra. The goal of this paper is to delineate the boundary of decidability of…
Existential rules are a prominent formalism to enrich a database with knowledge from the domain of interest, but make even basic reasoning tasks on the resulting knowledge base undecidable. To circumvent this, several classes of rules…
The chase is a ubiquitous algorithm in database theory. However, for existential rules (aka tuple-generating dependencies), its termination is not guaranteed, and even undecidable in general. The problem of termination becomes particularly…
A relational database is said to be uncertain if primary key constraints can possibly be violated. A repair (or possible world) of an uncertain database is obtained by selecting a maximal number of tuples without ever selecting two distinct…
We show that deciding boundedness (aka FO-rewritability) of monadic single rule datalog programs (sirups) is 2Exp-hard, which matches the upper bound known since 1988 and finally settles a long-standing open problem. We obtain this result…
Existential rules, long known as tuple-generating dependencies in database theory, have been intensively studied in the last decade as a powerful formalism to represent ontological knowledge in the context of ontology-based query answering.…
An uncertain database is defined as a relational database in which primary keys need not be satisfied. A repair (or possible world) of such database is obtained by selecting a maximal number of tuples without ever selecting two distinct…
Query determinacy is decidable for project-select views and a project-select-join query with no self joins, as long as the selection predicates are in a first-order theory for which satisfiability is decidable.
A query Q is monotonically determined over a set of views if Q can be expressed as a monotonic function of the view image. In the case of relational algebra views and queries, monotonic determinacy coincides with rewritability as a union of…
Extensive research in the field of ontology-based query answering has led to the identification of numerous fragments of existential rules (also known as tuple-generating dependencies) that exhibit decidable answering of atomic and…
Database theory is exciting because it studies highly general and practically useful abstractions. Conjunctive query (CQ) evaluation is a prime example: it simultaneously generalizes graph pattern matching, constraint satisfaction, and…