Volume 4, Issue 3

2008


1. Enriched MU-Calculi Module Checking

Alessandro Ferrante ; Aniello Murano ; Mimmo Parente.
The model checking problem for open systems has been intensively studied in the literature, for both finite-state (module checking) and infinite-state (pushdown module checking) systems, with respect to Ctl and Ctl*. In this paper, we further investigate this problem with respect to the \mu-calculus enriched with nominals and graded modalities (hybrid graded Mu-calculus), in both the finite-state and infinite-state settings. Using an automata-theoretic approach, we show that hybrid graded \mu-calculus module checking is solvable in exponential time, while hybrid graded \mu-calculus pushdown module checking is solvable in double-exponential time. These results are also tight since they match the known lower bounds for Ctl. We also investigate the module checking problem with respect to the hybrid graded \mu-calculus enriched with inverse programs (Fully enriched \mu-calculus): by showing a reduction from the domino problem, we show its undecidability. We conclude with a short overview of the model checking problem for the Fully enriched Mu-calculus and the fragments obtained by dropping at least one of the additional constructs.

2. Canonical calculi with (n,k)-ary quantifiers

Arnon Avron ; Anna Zamansky.
Propositional canonical Gentzen-type systems, introduced in 2001 by Avron and Lev, are systems which in addition to the standard axioms and structural rules have only logical rules in which exactly one occurrence of a connective is introduced and no other connective is mentioned. A constructive coherence criterion for the non-triviality of such systems was defined and it was shown that a system of this kind admits cut-elimination iff it is coherent. The semantics of such systems is provided using two-valued non-deterministic matrices (2Nmatrices). In 2005 Zamansky and Avron extended these results to systems with unary quantifiers of a very restricted form. In this paper we substantially extend the characterization of canonical systems to (n,k)-ary quantifiers, which bind k distinct variables and connect n formulas, and show that the coherence criterion remains constructive for such systems. Then we focus on the case of k∈{0,1} and for a canonical calculus G show that it is coherent precisely when it has a strongly characteristic 2Nmatrix, which in turn is equivalent to admitting strong cut-elimination.

3. Exhaustible sets in higher-type computation

Martin Escardo.
We say that a set is exhaustible if it admits algorithmic universal quantification for continuous predicates in finite time, and searchable if there is an algorithm that, given any continuous predicate, either selects an element for which the predicate holds or else tells there is no example. The Cantor space of infinite sequences of binary digits is known to be searchable. Searchable sets are exhaustible, and we show that the converse also holds for sets of hereditarily total elements in the hierarchy of continuous functionals; moreover, a selection functional can be constructed uniformly from a quantification functional. We prove that searchable sets are closed under intersections with decidable sets, and under the formation of computable images and of finite and countably infinite products. This is related to the fact, established here, that exhaustible sets are topologically compact. We obtain a complete description of exhaustible total sets by developing a computational version of a topological Arzela--Ascoli type characterization of compact subsets of function spaces. We also show that, in the non-empty case, they are precisely the computable images of the Cantor space. The emphasis of this paper is on the theory of exhaustible and searchable sets, but we also briefly sketch applications.

4. Separability in the Ambient Logic

Daniel Hirschkoff ; Etienne Lozes ; Davide Sangiorgi.
The \it{Ambient Logic} (AL) has been proposed for expressing properties of process mobility in the calculus of Mobile Ambients (MA), and as a basis for query languages on semistructured data. We study some basic questions concerning the discriminating power of AL, focusing on the equivalence on processes induced by the logic $(=_L>)$. As underlying calculi besides MA we consider a subcalculus in which an image-finiteness condition holds and that we prove to be Turing complete. Synchronous variants of these calculi are studied as well. In these calculi, we provide two operational characterisations of $_=L$: a coinductive one (as a form of bisimilarity) and an inductive one (based on structual properties of processes). After showing $_=L$ to be stricly finer than barbed congruence, we establish axiomatisations of $_=L$ on the subcalculus of MA (both the asynchronous and the synchronous version), enabling us to relate $_=L$ to structural congruence. We also present some (un)decidability results that are related to the above separation properties for AL: the undecidability of $_=L$ on MA and its decidability on the subcalculus.

5. Extracting Programs from Constructive HOL Proofs via IZF Set-Theoretic Semantics

Robert Constable ; Wojciech Moczydlowski.
Church's Higher Order Logic is a basis for influential proof assistants -- HOL and PVS. Church's logic has a simple set-theoretic semantics, making it trustworthy and extensible. We factor HOL into a constructive core plus axioms of excluded middle and choice. We similarly factor standard set theory, ZFC, into a constructive core, IZF, and axioms of excluded middle and choice. Then we provide the standard set-theoretic semantics in such a way that the constructive core of HOL is mapped into IZF. We use the disjunction, numerical existence and term existence properties of IZF to provide a program extraction capability from proofs in the constructive core. We can implement the disjunction and numerical existence properties in two different ways: one using Rathjen's realizability for IZF and the other using a new direct weak normalization result for IZF by Moczydlowski. The latter can also be used for the term existence property.

6. Coinductive Formal Reasoning in Exact Real Arithmetic

Milad Niqui.
In this article we present a method for formally proving the correctness of the lazy algorithms for computing homographic and quadratic transformations -- of which field operations are special cases-- on a representation of real numbers by coinductive streams. The algorithms work on coinductive stream of Möbius maps and form the basis of the Edalat--Potts exact real arithmetic. We use the machinery of the Coq proof assistant for the coinductive types to present the formalisation. The formalised algorithms are only partially productive, i.e., they do not output provably infinite streams for all possible inputs. We show how to deal with this partiality in the presence of syntactic restrictions posed by the constructive type theory of Coq. Furthermore we show that the type theoretic techniques that we develop are compatible with the semantics of the algorithms as continuous maps on real numbers. The resulting Coq formalisation is available for public download.

7. Game Refinement Relations and Metrics

Luca de Alfaro ; Rupak Majumdar ; Vishwanath Raman ; Mariëlle Stoelinga.
We consider two-player games played over finite state spaces for an infinite number of rounds. At each state, the players simultaneously choose moves; the moves determine a successor state. It is often advantageous for players to choose probability distributions over moves, rather than single moves. Given a goal, for example, reach a target state, the question of winning is thus a probabilistic one: what is the maximal probability of winning from a given state? On these game structures, two fundamental notions are those of equivalences and metrics. Given a set of winning conditions, two states are equivalent if the players can win the same games with the same probability from both states. Metrics provide a bound on the difference in the probabilities of winning across states, capturing a quantitative notion of state similarity. We introduce equivalences and metrics for two-player game structures, and we show that they characterize the difference in probability of winning games whose goals are expressed in the quantitative mu-calculus. The quantitative mu-calculus can express a large set of goals, including reachability, safety, and omega-regular properties. Thus, we claim that our relations and metrics provide the canonical extensions to games, of the classical notion of bisimulation for transition systems. We develop our results both for equivalences and metrics, which generalize bisimulation, and for asymmetrical versions, which generalize simulation.

8. Consistency and Completeness of Rewriting in the Calculus of Constructions

Daria Walukiewicz-Chrzaszcz ; Jacek Chrzaszcz.
Adding rewriting to a proof assistant based on the Curry-Howard isomorphism, such as Coq, may greatly improve usability of the tool. Unfortunately adding an arbitrary set of rewrite rules may render the underlying formal system undecidable and inconsistent. While ways to ensure termination and confluence, and hence decidability of type-checking, have already been studied to some extent, logical consistency has got little attention so far. In this paper we show that consistency is a consequence of canonicity, which in turn follows from the assumption that all functions defined by rewrite rules are complete. We provide a sound and terminating, but necessarily incomplete algorithm to verify this property. The algorithm accepts all definitions that follow dependent pattern matching schemes presented by Coquand and studied by McBride in his PhD thesis. It also accepts many definitions by rewriting, containing rules which depart from standard pattern matching.

9. Rational streams coalgebraically

J. J. M. M. Rutten.
We study rational streams (over a field) from a coalgebraic perspective. Exploiting the finality of the set of streams, we present an elementary and uniform proof of the equivalence of four notions of representability of rational streams: by finite dimensional linear systems; by finite stream circuits; by finite weighted stream automata; and by finite dimensional subsystems of the set of streams.

10. Proving Noninterference by a Fully Complete Translation to the Simply Typed lambda-calculus

Naokata Shikuma ; Atsushi Igarashi.
Tse and Zdancewic have formalized the notion of noninterference for Abadi et al.'s DCC in terms of logical relations and given a proof of noninterference by reduction to parametricity of System F. Unfortunately, their proof contains errors in a key lemma that their translation from DCC to System F preserves the logical relations defined for both calculi. In fact, we have found a counterexample for it. In this article, instead of DCC, we prove noninterference for sealing calculus, a new variant of DCC, by reduction to the basic lemma of a logical relation for the simply typed lambda-calculus, using a fully complete translation to the simply typed lambda-calculus. Full completeness plays an important role in showing preservation of the two logical relations through the translation. Also, we investigate relationship among sealing calculus, DCC, and an extension of DCC by Tse and Zdancewic and show that the first and the last of the three are equivalent.

11. The Complexity of Enriched Mu-Calculi

Piero A. Bonatti ; Carsten Lutz ; Aniello Murano ; Moshe Y. Vardi.
The fully enriched μ-calculus is the extension of the propositional μ-calculus with inverse programs, graded modalities, and nominals. While satisfiability in several expressive fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus is known to be decidable and ExpTime-complete, it has recently been proved that the full calculus is undecidable. In this paper, we study the fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus that are obtained by dropping at least one of the additional constructs. We show that, in all fragments obtained in this way, satisfiability is decidable and ExpTime-complete. Thus, we identify a family of decidable logics that are maximal (and incomparable) in expressive power. Our results are obtained by introducing two new automata models, showing that their emptiness problems are ExpTime-complete, and then reducing satisfiability in the relevant logics to these problems. The automata models we introduce are two-way graded alternating parity automata over infinite trees (2GAPTs) and fully enriched automata (FEAs) over infinite forests. The former are a common generalization of two incomparable automata models from the literature. The latter extend alternating automata in a similar way as the fully enriched μ-calculus extends the standard μ-calculus.

12. Model Checking Probabilistic Timed Automata with One or Two Clocks

Marcin Jurdzinski ; Francois Laroussinie ; Jeremy Sproston.
Probabilistic timed automata are an extension of timed automata with discrete probability distributions. We consider model-checking algorithms for the subclasses of probabilistic timed automata which have one or two clocks. Firstly, we show that PCTL probabilistic model-checking problems (such as determining whether a set of target states can be reached with probability at least 0.99 regardless of how nondeterminism is resolved) are PTIME-complete for one-clock probabilistic timed automata, and are EXPTIME-complete for probabilistic timed automata with two clocks. Secondly, we show that, for one-clock probabilistic timed automata, the model-checking problem for the probabilistic timed temporal logic PCTL is EXPTIME-complete. However, the model-checking problem for the subclass of PCTL which does not permit both punctual timing bounds, which require the occurrence of an event at an exact time point, and comparisons with probability bounds other than 0 or 1, is PTIME-complete for one-clock probabilistic timed automata.

13. On the strength of proof-irrelevant type theories

Benjamin Werner.
We present a type theory with some proof-irrelevance built into the conversion rule. We argue that this feature is useful when type theory is used as the logical formalism underlying a theorem prover. We also show a close relation with the subset types of the theory of PVS. We show that in these theories, because of the additional extentionality, the axiom of choice implies the decidability of equality, that is, almost classical logic. Finally we describe a simple set-theoretic semantics.