English

Modulo Counting on Words and Trees

Logic in Computer Science 2017-10-17 v1

Abstract

We consider the satisfiability problem for the two-variable fragment of the first-order logic extended with modulo counting quantifiers and interpreted over finite words or trees. We prove a small-model property of this logic, which gives a technique for deciding the satisfiability problem. In the case of words this gives a new proof of EXPSPACE upper bound, and in the case of trees it gives a 2EXPTIME algorithm. This algorithm is optimal: we prove a matching lower bound by a generic reduction from alternating Turing machines working in exponential space; the reduction involves a development of a new version of tiling games.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.05582,
  title  = {Modulo Counting on Words and Trees},
  author = {Bartosz Bednarczyk and Witold Charatonik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.05582},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Full version of a paper published in proceedings of FSTTCS 2017 conference

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:14:41.339Z