Related papers: A generic polynomial time approach to separation b…
Given two languages, a separator is a third language that contains the first one and is disjoint from the second one. We investigate the following decision problem: given two regular input languages of finite words, decide whether there…
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…
Adding modular predicates yields a generalization of first-order logic FO over words. The expressive power of FO[<,MOD] with order comparison $x<y$ and predicates for $x \equiv i \mod n$ has been investigated by Barrington, Compton,…
We study probabilistic complexity classes and questions of derandomisation from a logical point of view. For each logic L we introduce a new logic BPL, bounded error probabilistic L, which is defined from L in a similar way as the…
Building upon the known generalized-quantifier-based first-order characterization of LOGCFL, we lay the groundwork for a deeper investigation. Specifically, we examine subclasses of LOGCFL arising from varying the arity and nesting of…
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…
The regular languages with a neutral letter expressible in first-order logic with one alternation are characterized. Specifically, it is shown that if an arbitrary $\Sigma_2$ formula defines a regular language with a neutral letter, then…
We investigate two operators on classes of regular languages: polynomial closure (Pol) and Boolean closure (Bool). We apply these operators to classes of group languages G and to their well-suited extensions G+, which is the least Boolean…
Recently, the separated fragment (SF) of first-order logic has been introduced. Its defining principle is that universally and existentially quantified variables may not occur together in atoms. SF properly generalizes both the…
We investigate the complexity of the separation problem associated to classes of regular languages. For a class C, C-separation takes two regular languages as input and asks whether there exists a third language in C which includes the…
Logics with team semantics provide alternative means for logical characterization of complexity classes. Both dependence and independence logic are known to capture non-deterministic polynomial time, and the frontiers of tractability in…
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…
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 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…
The class of Basic Feasible Functionals BFF is the second-order counterpart of the class of first-order functions computable in polynomial time. We present several implicit characterizations of BFF based on a typed programming language of…
First-order temporal logics are notorious for their bad computational behaviour. It is known that even the two-variable monadic fragment is highly undecidable over various linear timelines, and over branching time even one-variable…
We investigate two problems for a class C of regular word languages. The C-membership problem asks for an algorithm to decide whether an input language belongs to C. The C-separation problem asks for an algorithm that, given as input two…
We consider first-order logic with monoidal quantifiers over words. We show that all languages with a neutral letter, definable using the addition numerical predicate are also definable with the order predicate as the only numerical…
This paper presents matching logic, a first-order logic (FOL) variant for specifying and reasoning about structure by means of patterns and pattern matching. Its sentences, the patterns, are constructed using variables, symbols, connectives…
We consider the quantifier alternation hierarchy within two-variable first-order logic FO^2[<,suc] over finite words with linear order and binary successor predicate. We give a single identity of omega-terms for each level of this…