Related papers: Two-variable logic has weak, but not strong, Beth …

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 prove that n-variable logics do not have the weak Beth definability property, for all n greater than 2. This was known for n=3 (Ildik\'o Sain and Andr\'as Simon), and for n greater than 4 (Ian Hodkinson). Neither of the previous proofs…

We consider two-variable first-order logic on finite words with a fixed number of quantifier alternations. We show that all languages with a neutral letter definable using the order and finite-degree predicates are also definable with the…

Order-invariant first-order logic is an extension of first-order logic FO where formulae can make use of a linear order on the structures, under the proviso that they are order-invariant, i.e. that their truth value is the same for all…

The classical decision problem, as it is understood today, is the quest for a delineation between the decidable and the undecidable parts of first-order logic based on elegant syntactic criteria. In this paper, we treat the concept of…

A condition, in two variants, is given such that if a property P satisfies this condition, then every logic which is at least as strong as first-order logic and can express P fails to have the compactness property. The result is used to…

We study an extension of FO^2[<], first-order logic interpreted in finite words, in which formulas are restricted to use only two variables. We adjoin to this language two-variable atomic formulas that say, `the letter a appears between…

We consider the two-variable fragment of first-order logic with one distinguished binary predicate constrained to be interpreted as a transitive relation. The finite satisfiability problem for this logic is shown to be decidable, in triply…

We investigate the decidability of the definability problem for fragments of first order logic over finite words enriched with modular predicates. Our approach aims toward the most generic statements that we could achieve, which…

We study two extensions of FO2[<], first-order logic interpreted in finite words, in which formulas are restricted to use only two variables. We adjoin to this language two-variable atomic formulas that say, "the letter $a$ appears between…

Model theoretic results such as Characterization and Definability give important information about different logics. It is well known that the proofs of those results for several modal logics have, somehow, the same 'taste'. A general proof…

Ordinary first-order logic has the property that two formulas \phi and \psi have the same meaning in a structure if and only if the formula ``\phi iff \psi'' is true in the structure. We prove that independence-friendly logic does not have…

We characterize the languages in the individual levels of the quantifier alternation hierarchy of first-order logic with two variables by identities. This implies decidability of the individual levels. More generally we show that the…

While modal extensions of decidable fragments of first-order logic are usually undecidable, their monodic counterparts, in which formulas in the scope of modal operators have at most one free variable, are typically decidable. This only…

We consider the one-variable fragment of first-order logic extended with Presburger constraints. The logic is designed in such a way that it subsumes the previously-known fragments extended with counting, modulo counting or cardinality…

We introduce a notion of weak definability of first order structures, show that various classification-theoretic properties are or are not preserved under it, and that the properties which are preserved can also be characterized in terms of…

Drawing on the previous work on interpolation failure, we show that Beth's definability theorem does not hold for intuitionistic predicate logic of constant domains without identity.

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…

We study the satisfiability problem for the two-variable first-order logic over structures with one transitive relation. % We show that the problem is decidable in 2-NExpTime for the fragment consisting of formulas where existential…

We study fragments of first-order logic and of least fixed point logic that allow only unary negation: negation of formulas with at most one free variable. These logics generalize many interesting known formalisms, including modal logic and…