Logic » Finite Model Theory

MSO alternation hierarchy over pictures ★★

Author(s): Grandjean

Question   Is the MSO-alternation hierarchy strict for pictures that are balanced, in the sense that the width and the length are polynomially (or linearly) related.

Keywords: FMT12-LesHouches; MSO, alternation hierarchy; picture languages

Posted by dberwanger
updated May 18th, 2012
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Logic » Finite Model Theory

Blatter-Specker Theorem for ternary relations ★★

Author(s): Makowsky

Let $ C $ be a class of finite relational structures. We denote by $ f_C(n) $ the number of structures in $ C $ over the labeled set $ \{0, \dots, n-1 \} $. For any class $ C $ definable in monadic second-order logic with unary and binary relation symbols, Specker and Blatter showed that, for every $ m \in \mathbb{N} $, the function $ f_C(n) $ is ultimately periodic modulo $ m $.

Question   Does the Blatter-Specker Theorem hold for ternary relations.

Keywords: Blatter-Specker Theorem; FMT00-Luminy

Posted by dberwanger
updated May 18th, 2012
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Logic » Finite Model Theory

Monadic second-order logic with cardinality predicates ★★

Author(s): Courcelle

The problem concerns the extension of Monadic Second Order Logic (over a binary relation representing the edge relation) with the following atomic formulas:

    \item $ \text{``}\,\mathrm{Card}(X) = \mathrm{Card}(Y)\,\text{''} $ \item $ \text{``}\,\mathrm{Card}(X) \text{ belongs to } A\,\text{''} $

where $ A $ is a fixed recursive set of integers.

Let us fix $ k $ and a closed formula $ F $ in this language.

Conjecture   Is it true that the validity of $ F $ for a graph $ G $ of tree-width at most $ k $ can be tested in polynomial time in the size of $ G $?

Keywords: bounded tree width; cardinality predicates; FMT03-Bedlewo; MSO

Posted by dberwanger
updated May 18th, 2012
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