Related papers: The First-Order Theory of Binary Overlap-Free Word…

We consider a declarative framework for machine learning where concepts and hypotheses are defined by formulas of a logic over some background structure. We show that within this framework, concepts defined by first-order formulas over a…

Overlap-free words are words over the binary alphabet $A=\{a, b\}$ that do not contain factors of the form $xvxvx$, where $x \in A$ and $v \in A^*$. We analyze the asymptotic growth of the number $u_n$ of overlap-free words of length $n$ as…

The notion of a real-valued function is central to mathematics, computer science, and many other scientific fields. Despite this importance, there are hardly any positive results on decision procedures for predicate logical theories that…

We show that a first-order sentence is almost surely true in a random group of density d<1/2 if and only if it is true in a non-abelian free group.

Let $\Gamma$ be a centerless irreducible higher rank arithmetic lattice in characteristic zero. We prove that if $\Gamma$ is either non-uniform or is uniform of orthogonal type and dimension at least 9, then $\Gamma$ is bi-interpretable…

We give topological and algebraic characterizations as well as language theoretic descriptions of the following subclasses of first-order logic FO[<] for omega-languages: Sigma_2, FO^2, the intersection of FO^2 and Sigma_2, and Delta_2 (and…

First-order logic is the basis for many knowledge representation formalisms and methods. Providing technological support for learning to write first-order formulas for natural language specifications requires methods to test formulas for…

We continue our work on the model theory of free lattices, solving two of the main open problems from our first paper on the subject. Our main result is that the universal (existential) theory of infinite free lattices is decidable. Our…

In this work we continue the syntactic study of completeness that began with the works of Immerman and Medina. In particular, we take a conjecture raised by Medina in his dissertation that says if a conjunction of a second-order and a…

We introduce a flexible class of well-quasi-orderings (WQOs) on words that generalizes the ordering of (not necessarily contiguous) subwords. Each such WQO induces a class of piecewise testable languages (PTLs) as Boolean combinations of…

We prove that for any sequence of binary alphabets $\mathcal{A}_1,\mathcal{A}_2,\dots$, there exists a cube-free word $c_1c_2\dots$ so that $c_1\in\mathcal{A}_1,c_2\in\mathcal{A}_2,\dots$. In particular, for every $n$, there are at least…

We show that a special case of the Feferman-Vaught composition theorem gives rise to a natural notion of automata for finite words over an infinite alphabet, with good closure and decidability properties, as well as several logical…

We show that over the class of linear orders with additional binary relations satisfying some monotonicity conditions, monadic first-order logic has the three-variable property. This generalizes (and gives a new proof of) several known…

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…

Consider a linear ordering equipped with a finite sequence of monadic predicates. If the ordering contains an interval of order type \omega or -\omega, and the monadic second-order theory of the combined structure is decidable, there exists…

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…

The higher order matching problem is the problem of determining whether a term is an instance of another in the simply typed $\lambda$-calculus, i.e. to solve the equation a = b where a and b are simply typed $\lambda$-terms and b is…

This paper discusses the method of formative rules for first-order term rewriting, which was previously defined for a higher-order setting. Dual to the well-known usable rules, formative rules allow dropping some of the term constraints…

We study the first-order model checking problem on two generalisations of pushdown graphs. The first class is the class of nested pushdown trees. The other is the class of collapsible pushdown graphs. Our main results are the following.…

We implement a decision procedure for answering questions about a class of infinite words that might be called (for lack of a better name) "Fibonacci-automatic". This class includes, for example, the famous Fibonacci word f = 01001010...,…