We introduce a new class of automata (which we coin EU-automata) running on infinite trees of arbitrary (finite) arity. We develop and study several algorithms to perform classical operations (union, intersection, complement, projection, alternation removal) for those automata, and precisely characterise their complexities. We also develop algorithms for solving membership and emptiness for the languages of trees accepted by EU-automata. We then use EU-automata to obtain several algorithmic and expressiveness results for the temporal logics QCTL and QCTL* (which extends CTL and CTL* with quantification over atomic propositions) and for MSO.

Quantified LTL (QLTL) extends the temporal logic LTL with quantifications over atomic propositions. Several semantics exist to handle these quantifications, depending on the definition of executions over which formulas are interpreted: either infinite sequences of subsets of atomic propositions (aka the "tree semantics") or infinite sequences of control states combined with a labelling function that associates atomic propositions to the control states (aka the "structure semantics"). The main difference being that in the latter different occurrences of a control state should be labelled similarly. The tree semantics has been intensively studied from the complexity and expressivity point of view (especially in the work of Sistla [Sistla, 1983; Sistla et al., 1987]) for which the satisfiability and model-checking problems are known to be TOWER-complete. For the structure semantics, French has shown that the satisfiability problem is undecidable [French, 2003]. We study here the model-checking problem for QLTL under this semantics and prove that it is EXPSPACE-complete. We also show that the complexity drops down to PSPACE-complete for two specific cases of structures, namely path and flat ones.

QCTL extends the temporal logic CTL with quantifications over atomic propositions. This extension is known to be very expressive: QCTL allows us to express complex properties over Kripke structures (it is as expressive as MSO). Several semantics exist for the quantifications: here, we work with the structure semantics, where the extra propositions label the Kripke structure (and not its execution tree), and the model-checking problem is known to be PSPACE-complete in this framework. We propose a model-checking algorithm for QCTL based on a reduction to QBF. We consider several reduction strategies, and we compare them with a prototype (based on the SMT-solver Z3) on several examples.

QCTL extends the temporal logic CTL with quantification over atomic propositions. While the algorithmic questions for QCTL and its fragments with limited quantification depth are well-understood (e.g. satisfiability of QkCTL, with at most k nested blocks of quantifiers, is (k+1)-EXPTIME-complete), very few results are known about the expressiveness of this logic. We address such expressiveness questions in this paper. We first consider the distinguishing power of these logics (i.e., their ability to separate models), their relationship with behavioural equivalences, and their ability to capture the behaviours of finite Kripke structures with so-called characteristic formulas. We then consider their expressive power (i.e., their ability to express a property), showing that in terms of expressiveness the hierarchy QkCTL collapses at level 2 (in other terms, any QCTL formula can be expressed using at most two nested blocks of quantifiers).

We study the alternating-time temporal logics ATL and ATL* extended with strategy contexts: these make agents commit to their strategies during the evaluation of formulas, contrary to plain ATL and ATL* where strategy quantifiers reset previously selected strategies. We illustrate the important expressive power of strategy contexts by proving that they make the extended logics, namely ATLsc and ATLsc*, equally expressive: any formula in ATLsc* can be translated into an equivalent, linear-size ATLsc formula. Despite the high expressiveness of these logics, we~prove that their model-checking problems remain decidable by~designing a tree-automata-based algorithm for model-checking ATLsc* on the full class of $n$-player concurrent game structures.

This paper presents a quantitative extension for the linear-time temporal logic LTL allowing to specify the number of states satisfying certain sub-formulas along paths. We give decision procedures for the satisfiability and model checking of this new temporal logic and study the complexity of the corresponding problems. Furthermore we show that the problems become undecidable when more expressive constraints are considered.

François Laroussinie; Christel Baier and Joost-Pieter KatoenPrinciples of Model Checking. MIT Press (May 2008).ISBN: 978-0-262-02649-9. £44.95. 975 pp. Hardcove

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.

ATL is a temporal logic geared towards the specification and verification of properties in multi-agents systems. It allows to reason on the existence of strategies for coalitions of agents in order to enforce a given property. In this paper, we first precisely characterize the complexity of ATL model-checking over Alternating Transition Systems and Concurrent Game Structures when the number of agents is not fixed. We prove that it is \Delta^P_2 - and \Delta^P_?_3-complete, depending on the underlying multi-agent model (ATS and CGS resp.). We also consider the same problems for some extensions of ATL. We then consider expressiveness issues. We show how ATS and CGS are related and provide translations between these models w.r.t. alternating bisimulation. We also prove that the standard definition of ATL (built on modalities "Next", "Always" and "Until") cannot express the duals of its modalities: it is necessary to explicitely add the modality "Release".

The design of embedded real-time systems requires skills from multiple specific disciplines, including, but not limited to, control, computer science, and electronics. This often involves experts from differing backgrounds, who do not recognize that they address similar, if not identical, issues from complementary angles. Design methodologies are lacking in rigor and discipline so that demonstrating correctness of an embedded design, if at all possible, is a very expensive proposition that may delay significantly the introduction of a critical product. While the economic importance of embedded systems is widely acknowledged, academia has not paid enough attention to the education of a community of high-quality embedded system designers, an obvious difficulty being the need of interdisciplinarity in a period where specialization has been the target of most education systems. This paper presents the reflections that took place in the European Network of Excellence Artist leading us to propose principles and structured contents for building curricula on embedded software and systems.

We investigate NLTL, a linear-time temporal logic with forgettable past. NLTL can be exponentially more succinct than LTL+Past (which in turn can be more succinct than LTL). We study satisfiability and model checking for NLTL and provide optimal automata-theoretic algorithms for these EXPSPACE-complete problems.