We study a version of the Craig interpolation theorem formulated in the framework of the theory of institutions. This formulation proved crucial in the development of a number of key results concerning foundations of software specification and formal development. We investigate preservation of interpolation properties under institution extensions by new models and sentences. We point out that some interpolation properties remain stable under such extensions, even if quite arbitrary new models and sentences are permitted. We give complete characterisations of such situations for institution extensions by new models, by new sentences, as well as by new models and sentences, respectively.

Let $\mathscr {C}$ be a class of finite and infinite graphs that is closed under induced subgraphs. The well-known Łoś–Tarski Theorem from classical model theory implies that $\mathscr {C}$ is definable in first-order logic by a sentence $\varphi $ if and only if $\mathscr {C}$ has a finite set of forbidden induced finite subgraphs. This result provides a powerful tool to show nontrivial characterizations of graphs of small vertex cover, of bounded tree-depth, of bounded shrub-depth, etc. in terms of forbidden induced finite subgraphs. Furthermore, by the Completeness Theorem, we can compute from $\varphi $ the corresponding forbidden induced subgraphs. This machinery fails on finite graphs as shown by our results:

• – There is a class $\mathscr {C}$ of finite graphs that is definable in first-order logic and closed under induced subgraphs but has no finite set of forbidden induced subgraphs.

• – Even if we only consider classes $\mathscr {C}$ of finite graphs that can be characterized by a finite set of forbidden induced subgraphs, such a characterization cannot be computed from a first-order sentence $\varphi $ that defines $\mathscr {C}$ and the size of the characterization cannot be bounded by $f(|\varphi |)$ for any computable function f.

Besides their importance in graph theory, the above results also significantly strengthen similar known theorems for arbitrary structures.

Reasoning with quantifier expressions in natural language combines logical and arithmetical features, transcending strict divides between qualitative and quantitative. Our topic is this cooperation of styles as it occurs in common linguistic usage and its extension into the broader practice of natural language plus ‘grassroots mathematics’.

We begin with a brief review of $\mathsf {FO}(\#)$, first-order logic with counting operators and cardinality comparisons. This system is known to be of very high complexity, and drowns out finer aspects of the combination of logic and counting. We therefore move to a small fragment that can represent numerical syllogisms and basic reasoning about comparative size: monadic first-order logic with counting, $\mathsf {MFO}(\#)$. We provide normal forms that allow for axiomatization, determine which arithmetical notions can be defined on finite and on infinite models, and conversely, we discuss which logical notions can be defined out of purely arithmetical ones, and what sort of (non-)classical logics can be induced.

Next, we investigate a series of strengthenings of $\mathsf {MFO}(\#)$, again using normal form methods. The monadic second-order version is close, in a precise sense, to additive Presburger Arithmetic, while versions with the natural device of tuple counting take us to Diophantine equations, making the logic undecidable. We also define a system $\mathsf {ML}(\#)$ that combines basic modal logic over binary accessibility relations with counting, needed to formulate ubiquitous reasoning patterns such as the Pigeonhole Principle. We prove decidability of $\mathsf {ML}(\#)$, and provide a new kind of bisimulation matching the expressive power of the language.

As a complement to the fragment approach pursued here, we also discuss two other ways of lowering the complexity of $\mathsf {FO}(\#)$ by changing the semantics of counting in natural ways. A first approach replaces cardinalities by abstract but well-motivated values of ‘mass’ or other mereological aggregating notions. A second approach keeps the cardinalities but generalizes the meaning of counting to work in models that allow dependencies between variables.

Finally, we return to our starting point in natural language, confronting the architecture of our formal systems with linguistic quantifier vocabulary and syntax, as well as with natural reasoning modules such as the monotonicity calculus. In addition to these encounters with formal semantics, we discuss the role of counting in semantic evaluation procedures for quantifier expressions and determine, for instance, which binary quantifiers are computable by finite ‘semantic automata’. We conclude with some general thoughts on yet further entanglements of logic and counting in formal systems, on rethinking the qualitative/quantitative divide, and on connecting our analysis to empirical findings in cognitive science.

We present a proof system for a multimode and multimodal logic, which is based on our previous work on modal Martin-Löf type theory. The specification of modes, modalities, and implications between them is given as a mode theory, i.e., a small 2-category. The logic is extended to a lambda calculus, establishing a Curry–Howard correspondence.

There exist two notions of equivalence of behavior between states of a Labelled Markov Process (LMP): state bisimilarity and event bisimilarity. The first one can be considered as an appropriate generalization to continuous spaces of Larsen and Skou’s probabilistic bisimilarity, whereas the second one is characterized by a natural logic. C. Zhou expressed state bisimilarity as the greatest fixed point of an operator $\mathcal {O}$, and thus introduced an ordinal measure of the discrepancy between it and event bisimilarity. We call this ordinal the Zhou ordinal of $\mathbb {S}$, $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S})$. When $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S})=0$, $\mathbb {S}$ satisfies the Hennessy–Milner property. The second author proved the existence of an LMP $\mathbb {S}$ with $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S}) \geq 1$ and Zhou showed that there are LMPs having an infinite Zhou ordinal. In this paper we show that there are LMPs $\mathbb {S}$ over separable metrizable spaces having arbitrary large countable $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S})$ and that it is consistent with the axioms of $\mathit {ZFC}$ that there is such a process with an uncountable Zhou ordinal.

Locality is a property of logics, whose origins lie in the works of Hanf and Gaifman, having their utility in the context of finite model theory. Such a property is quite useful in proofs of inexpressibility, but it is also useful in establishing normal forms for logical formulas. There are generally two forms of locality: (i’) if two structures $\mathfrak {A}$ and $\mathfrak {B}$ realize the same multiset of types of neighborhoods of radius d, then they agree on a given sentence $\Phi $ . Here d depends only on $\Phi $ ; (ii’) if the d-neighborhoods of two tuples $\vec {a}_1$ and $\vec {a}_2$ in a structure $\mathfrak {A}$ are isomorphic, then $\mathfrak {A} \models \Phi (\vec {a}_1) \Leftrightarrow \Phi (\vec {a}_2)$ . Again, d depends on $\Phi $ , and not on $\mathfrak {A}$ . Form (i’) originated from Hanf’s works. Form (ii’) came from Gaifman’s theorem. There is no doubt about the usefulness of the notion of locality, which as seen applies to a huge number of situations. However, there is a deficiency in such a notion: all versions of the notion of locality refer to isomorphism of neighborhoods, which is a fairly strong property. For example, where structures simply do not have sufficient isomorphic neighborhoods, versions of the notion of locality obviously cannot be applied. So the question that immediately arises is: would it be possible to weaken such a condition and maintain Hanf/Gaifman-localities? Arenas, Barceló, and Libkin establish a new condition for the notions of locality, weakening the requirement that neighborhoods should be isomorphic, establishing only the condition that they must be indistinguishable in a given logic. That is, instead of requiring $N_d(\vec {a}) \cong N_d(\vec {b})$ , you should only require $N_d(\vec {a}) \equiv _k N_d(\vec {b})$ , for some $k \geq 0$ . Using the fact that logical equivalence is often captured by Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé games, the authors formulate a game-based framework in which logical equivalence-based locality can be defined. Thus, the notion defined by the authors is that of game-based locality. Although quite promising as well as easy to apply, the game-based framework (used to define locality under logical equivalence) has the following problem: if a logic $\mathcal {L}$ is local (Hanf-, or Gaifman-, or weakly) under isomorphisms, and $\mathcal {L}'$ is a sub-logic of $\mathcal {L}$ , then $\mathcal {L}'$ is local as well. The same, however, is not true for game-based locality: properties of games guaranteeing locality need not be preserved if one passes to weaker games. The question that immediately arises is: is it possible to define the notion of locality under logical equivalence without resorting to game-based frameworks? In this thesis, I present a homotopic variation for locality under logical equivalence, namely a Quillen model category-based framework for locality under k-logical equivalence, for every primitive-positive sentence of quantifier-rank k.

Abstract prepared by Hendrick Maia.

E-mail: hendrickmaia@gmail.com

URL: http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/334956

In the context of propositional logics, we apply semantics modulo satisfiability—a restricted semantics which comprehends only valuations that satisfy some specific set of formulas—with the aim to efficiently solve some computational tasks. Three possible such applications are developed.

We begin by studying the possibility of implicitly representing rational McNaughton functions in Łukasiewicz Infinitely-valued Logic through semantics modulo satisfiability. We theoretically investigate some approaches to such representation concept, called representation modulo satisfiability, and describe a polynomial algorithm that builds representations in the newly introduced system. An implementation of the algorithm, test results and ways to randomly generate rational McNaughton functions for testing are presented. Moreover, we propose an application of such representations to the formal verification of properties of neural networks by means of the reasoning framework of Łukasiewicz Infinitely-valued Logic.

Then, we move to the investigation of the satisfiability of joint probabilistic assignments to formulas of Łukasiewicz Infinitely-valued Logic, which is known to be an NP-complete problem. We provide an exact decision algorithm derived from the combination of linear algebraic methods with semantics modulo satisfiability. Also, we provide an implementation for such algorithm for which the phenomenon of phase transition is empirically detected.

Lastly, we study the game theory situation of observable games, which are games that are known to reach a Nash equilibrium, however, an external observer does not know what is the exact profile of actions that occur in a specific instance; thus, such observer assigns subjective probabilities to players actions. We study the decision problem of determining if a set of these probabilistic constraints is coherent by reducing it to the problems of satisfiability of probabilistic assignments to logical formulas both in Classical Propositional Logic and Łukasiewicz Infinitely-valued Logic depending on whether only pure equilibria or also mixed equilibria are allowed. Such reductions rely upon the properties of semantics modulo satisfiability. We provide complexity and algorithmic discussion for the coherence problem and, also, for the problem of computing maximal and minimal probabilistic constraints on actions that preserves coherence.

Abstract prepared by Sandro Márcio da Silva Preto.

E-mail: spreto@ime.usp.br

URL:https://doi.org/10.11606/T.45.2021.tde-17062021-163257

We devise imperative programming languages for verified real number computation where real numbers are provided as abstract data types such that the users of the languages can express real number computation by considering real numbers as abstract mathematical entities. Unlike other common approaches toward real number computation, based on an algebraic model that lacks implementability or transcendental computation, or finite-precision approximation such as using double precision computation that lacks a formal foundation, our languages are devised based on computable analysis, a foundation of rigorous computation over continuous data. Consequently, the users of the language can easily program real number computation and reason about the behaviours of their programs, relying on their mathematical knowledge of real numbers without worrying about artificial roundoff errors. As the languages are imperative, we adopt precondition–postcondition-style program specification and Hoare-style program verification methodologies. Consequently, the users of the language can easily program a computation over real numbers, specify the expected behaviour of the program, including termination, and prove the correctness of the specification. Furthermore, we suggest extending the languages with other interesting continuous data, such as matrices, continuous real functions, et cetera.

Abstract taken directly from the thesis.

E-mail: sewonpark17@gmail.com

URL: https://sewonpark.com/thesis

We present a natural standard translation of inquisitive modal logic $\mathrm{InqML}$ into first-order logic over the natural two-sorted relational representations of the intended models, which captures the built-in higher-order features of $\mathrm{InqML}$ . This translation is based on a graded notion of flatness that ties the inherent second-order, team-semantic features of $\mathrm{InqML}$ over information states to subsets or tuples of bounded size. A natural notion of pseudo-models, which relaxes the non-elementary constraints on the intended models, gives rise to an elementary, purely model-theoretic proof of the compactness property for $\mathrm{InqML}$ . Moreover, we prove a Hennessy-Milner theorem for $\mathrm{InqML}$ , which crucially uses $\omega $ -saturated pseudo-models and the new standard translation. As corollaries we also obtain van Benthem style characterisation theorems.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a paraconsistent Model Theory. The basis for such a theory was launched by Walter Carnielli, Marcelo Esteban Coniglio, Rodrigo Podiack, and Tarcísio Rodrigues in the article ‘On the Way to a Wider Model Theory: Completeness Theorems for First-Order Logics of Formal Inconsistency’ [The Review of Symbolic Logic, vol. 7 (2014)].

Naturally, a complete theory cannot be fully developed in a single work. Indeed, the goal of this work is to show that a paraconsistent Model Theory is a sound and worthy possibility. The pursuit of this goal is divided in three tasks: The first one is to give the theory a philosophical meaning. The second one is to transpose as many results from the classical theory to the new one as possible. The third one is to show an application of the theory to practical science.

The response to the first task is a Paraconsistent Reasoning System. The start point is that paraconsistency is an epistemological concept. The pursuit of a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of paraconsistency from this point of view leads to a reasoning system based on the Logics of Formal Inconsistency. Models are regarded as states of knowledge and the concept of isomorphism is reformulated so as to give raise to a new concept that preserves a portion of the whole knowledge of each state. Based on this, a notion of refinement is created which may occur from inside or from outside the state.

In order to respond to the second task, two important classical results, namely the Omitting Types Theorem and Craig’s Interpolation Theorem are shown to hold in the new system and it is also shown that, if classical results in general are to hold in a paraconsistent system, then such a system should be in essence how it was developed here.

Finally, the response to the third task is a proposal of what a Paraconsistent Logic Programming may be. For that, the basis for a paraconsistent PROLOG is settled in the light of the ideas developed so far.

Abstract prepared by Bruno Costa Coscarelli.

E-mail: brunocostacoscarelli@gmail.com

URL: http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/331697

As a new type of epistemic logics, the logics of knowing how capture the high-level epistemic reasoning about the knowledge of various plans to achieve certain goals. Existing work on these logics focuses on axiomatizations; this paper makes the first study of their model theoretical properties. It does so by introducing suitable notions of bisimulation for a family of five knowing how logics based on different notions of plans. As an application, we study and compare the expressive power of these logics.

We study the logic of so-called lexicographic or priority merge for multi-agent plausibility models. We start with a systematic comparison between the logical behavior of priority merge and the more standard notion of pooling through intersection, used to define, for instance, distributed knowledge. We then provide a sound and complete axiomatization of the logic of priority merge, as well as a proof theory in labeled sequents that admits cut. We finally study Moorean phenomena and define a dynamic resolution operator for priority merge for which we also provide a complete set of reduction axioms.

We define a fragment of monadic infinitary second-order logic corresponding to an abstract separation property. We use this to define the concept of a separation subclass. We use model theoretic techniques and games to show that separation subclasses whose axiomatisations are recursively enumerable in our second-order fragment can also be recursively axiomatised in their original first-order language. We pin down the expressive power of this formalism with respect to first-order logic, and investigate some questions relating to decidability and computational complexity. As applications of these results, by showing that certain classes can be straightforwardly defined as separation subclasses, we obtain first-order axiomatisability results for these classes. In particular we apply this technique to graph colourings and a class of partial algebras arising from separation logic.

Inquisitive modal logic, InqML, is a generalisation of standard Kripke-style modal logic. In its epistemic incarnation, it extends standard epistemic logic to capture not just the information that agents have, but also the questions that they are interested in. Technically, InqML fits within the family of logics based on team semantics. From a model-theoretic perspective, it takes us a step in the direction of monadic second-order logic, as inquisitive modal operators involve quantification over sets of worlds. We introduce and investigate the natural notion of bisimulation equivalence in the setting of InqML. We compare the expressiveness of InqML and first-order logic in the context of relational structures with two sorts, one for worlds and one for information states, and characterise inquisitive modal logic as the bisimulation invariant fragment of first-order logic over various natural classes of two-sorted structures.

We prove that the Wadge order on the Borel subsets of the Scott domain is not a well-quasi-order, and that this feature even occurs among the sets of Borel rank at most 2. For this purpose, a specific class of countable 2-colored posets $\mathbb{P}_{emb} $ equipped with the order induced by homomorphisms is embedded into the Wadge order on the $\Delta _2^0 $-degrees of the Scott domain. We then show that $\mathbb{P}_{emb} $ admits both infinite strictly decreasing chains and infinite antichains with respect to this notion of comparison, which therefore transfers to the Wadge order on the $\Delta _2^0 $-degrees of the Scott domain.

This article presents two theorems: (1) a generalization of Löb’s Theorem that applies to formal proof systems operating with bounded computational resources, such as formal verification software or theorem provers, and (2) a theorem on the robust cooperation of agents that employ proofs about one another’s source code as unexploitable criteria for cooperation. The latter illustrates a capacity for outperforming classical Nash equilibria and correlated equilibria, attaining mutually cooperative program equilibrium in the Prisoner’s Dilemma while remaining unexploitable, i.e., sometimes achieving the outcome (Cooperate, Cooperate), and never receiving the outcome (Cooperate, Defect) as player 1.

The Guarded Negation Fragment (GNFO) is a fragment of first-order logic that contains all positive existential formulas, can express the first-order translations of basic modal logic and of many description logics, along with many sentences that arise in databases. It has been shown that the syntax of GNFO is restrictive enough so that computational problems such as validity and satisfiability are still decidable. This suggests that, in spite of its expressive power, GNFO formulas are amenable to novel optimizations. In this article we study the model theory of GNFO formulas. Our results include effective preservation theorems for GNFO, effective Craig Interpolation and Beth Definability results, and the ability to express the certain answers of queries with respect to a large class of GNFO sentences within very restricted logics.

We generalize winning conditions in two-player games by adding a structural acceptance condition called obligations. Obligations are orthogonal to the linear winning conditions that define whether a play is winning. Obligations are a declaration that player 0 can achieve a certain value from a configuration. If the obligation is met, the value of that configuration for player 0 is 1.

We define the value in such games and show that obligation games are determined. For Markov chains with Borel objectives and obligations, and finite turn-based stochastic parity games with obligations we give an alternative and simpler characterization of the value function. Based on this simpler definition we show that the decision problem of winning finite turn-based stochastic parity games with obligations is in NP∩co-NP. We also show that obligation games provide a game framework for reasoning about p-automata.

This paper contains a proof–theoretic account of unification in intermediate logics. It is shown that many existing results can be extended to fragments that at least contain implication and conjunction. For such fragments, the connection between valuations and most general unifiers is clarified, and it is shown how from the closure of a formula under the Visser rules a proof of the formula under a projective unifier can be obtained. This implies that in the logics considered, for the n-unification type to be finitary it suffices that the m-th Visser rule is admissible for a sufficiently large m. At the end of the paper it is shown how these results imply several well-known results from the literature.

It is shown that a simple deduction engine can be developed for a propositional logic that follows the normal rules of classical logic in symbolic form, but the description of what is known about a proposition uses two numeric state variables that conveniently describe unknown and inconsistent, as well as true and false. Partly true and partly false can be included in deductions. The multi-valued logic is easily understood as the state variables relate directly to true and false. The deduction engine provides a convenient standard method for handling multiple or complicated logical relations. It is particularly convenient when the deduction can start with different propositions being given initial values of true or false. It extends Horn clause based deduction for propositional logic to arbitrary clauses. The logic system used has potential applications in many areas. A comparison with propositional logic makes the paper self-contained.