Related papers: Undecidability in First-Order Theories of Term Alg…
The first-order theory of addition over the natural numbers, known as Presburger arithmetic, is decidable in double exponential time. Adding an uninterpreted unary predicate to the language leads to an undecidable theory. We sharpen the…
We show that the decidability of the first-order theory of the language that combines Boolean algebras of sets of uninterpreted elements with Presburger arithmetic operations. We thereby disprove a recent conjecture that this theory is…
We consider first-order logic over the subword ordering on finite words, where each word is available as a constant. Our first result is that the $\Sigma_1$ theory is undecidable (already over two letters). We investigate the decidability…
These lecture notes cover classical undecidability results in number theory, Hilbert's 10th problem and recent developments around it, also for rings other than the integers. It also contains a sketch of the authors result that the integers…
We study the question of whether a given regular language of finite trees can be defined in first-order logic. We develop an algebraic approach to address this question and we use it to derive several necessary and sufficient conditions for…
We consider the fragment F of first order arithmetic in which quantification is restricted to ''for all but finitely many.'' We show that the integers form an F-elementary substructure of the real numbers. Consequently, the F-theory of…
We prove that the problems of representing a finite ordered complemented semigroup or finite lattice-ordered semigroup as an algebra of binary relations over a finite set are undecidable. In the case that complementation is taken with…
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 consider first-order logics of sequences ordered by the subsequence ordering, aka sequence embedding. We show that the \Sigma_2 theory is undecidable, answering a question left open by Kuske. Regarding fragments with a bounded number of…
Higher-order unification has been shown to be undecidable. Miller discovered the pattern fragment and subsequently showed that higher-order pattern unification is decidable and has most general unifiers. We extend the algorithm to…
We identify a number of decidable and undecidable fragments of first-order concatenation theory. We also give a purely universal axiomatization which is complete for the fragments we identify. Furthermore, we prove some normal-form results.
It is proved that the first-order theory of the structure (N,mod) is undecidable. Here mod denotes the operation of computing the remainder for any division between positive integers; i.e. x mod y is the remainder obtained by the division x…
In this paper we consider a fragment of the first-order theory of the real numbers that includes systems of equations of continuous functions in bounded domains, and for which all functions are computable in the sense that it is possible to…
We study first-order concatenation theory with bounded quantifiers. We give axiomatizations with interesting properties, and we prove some normal-form results. Finally, we prove a number of decidability and undecidability results.
We study first-order logic (FO) over the structure consisting of finite words over some alphabet $A$, together with the (non-contiguous) subword ordering. In terms of decidability of quantifier alternation fragments, this logic is…
We specify the frontier of decidability for fragments of the first-order theory of ordinal multiplication. We give a NEXPTIME lower bound for the complexity of the existential fragment of $\langle \omega^{\omega^\lambda}; \times, \omega,…
We consider expressions built up from binary relation names using the operators union, composition, and set difference. We show that it is undecidable to test whether a given such expression $e$ is finitely satisfiable, i.e., whether there…
We present in this paper a general algorithm for solving first-order formulas in particular theories called "decomposable theories". First of all, using special quantifiers, we give a formal characterization of decomposable theories and…
The analogue of Hilbert's tenth problem over $\mathbb{Q}$ asks for an algorithm to decide the existence of rational points in algebraic varieties over this field. This remains as one of the main open problems in the area of undecidability…
We formulate a property $P$ on a class of relations on the natural numbers, and formulate a general theorem on $P$, from which we get as corollaries the insolvability of Hilbert's tenth problem, G\"odel's incompleteness theorem, and…