We investigate the expressive power of generalized quantifiers closed under partial polymorphism conditions motivated by the study of constraint satisfaction problems. We answer a number of questions arising from the work of Dawar and Hella (CSL 2024) where such quantifiers were introduced. For quantifiers closed under partial near-unanimity polymorphisms, we establish hierarchy results clarifying the interplay between the arity of the polymorphisms and of the quantifiers: The expressive power of $(\ell+1)$-ary quantifiers closed under $\ell$-ary partial near-unanimity polymorphisms is strictly between the class of all quantifiers of arity $\ell-1$ and $\ell$. We also establish an infinite hierarchy based on the arity of quantifiers with a fixed arity of partial near-unanimity polymorphisms. Finally, we prove inexpressiveness results for quantifiers with a partial Maltsev polymorphism. The separation results are proved using novel algebraic constructions in the style of Cai-Fürer-Immerman and the quantifier pebble games of Dawar and Hella (2024).

Abstract We investigate distributed computing with identifiers in the realistic scenario where the local computations in a distributed message passing setting are operated by Boolean circuits. We call this framework the message passing circuit model. We capture the expressive power of the model with a recursive rule-based logic called modal substitution calculus MSC. The result is established via constructing translations that are highly efficient in relation to size and computation time. In particular, the worst size blow-up is quadratic and becomes linear in the bounded-degree scenario. Computation time delays are similarly modest. As a concrete demonstration of how our setting works, we establish that a very fast coloring algorithm based on Cole–Vishkin can be specified by logarithmic size programs (and thus also logarithmic size circuits) in the bounded-degree scenario.

In this article, we consider the interplay of generalized quantifiers and built-in relations over finite structures, in particular, in the range of logics capturing the circuit complexity classes \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) and \(\mathrm{TC^{0}}\) . It is well known that for capturing \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) first-order logic has to be equipped with order and, e.g., predicates for addition and multiplication, whereas for \(\mathrm{TC^{0}}\) generalized quantifiers such as majority quantifiers are necessary. The sharp division between the classes \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) and \(\mathrm{TC^{0}}\) can be explained by the fact that \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) is not closed under restricting \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) -computable queries into simple subsequences of the input, whereas \(\mathrm{TC^{0}}\) is closed under such relativization as its queries can be expressed in terms of first-order formulas using universe-independent generalized quantifiers and order as the only built-in relation. In the terminology of abstract logics, the above means that logics capturing \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) do not have the relativization property, and hence, they are not regular logics unlike the logics capturing \(\mathrm{TC^{0}}\) . This weakness of \(\mathrm{AC^{0}}\) has been also elaborated in the line of research on the Crane Beach Conjecture. The conjecture (which was refuted by Barrington et al.) was that if a language \( L \) has a neutral letter, then \( L \) can be defined in \(\operatorname{FO}_{\mathcal{A}}\) , first-order logic with the collection of all numerical built-in relations \(\mathcal{A}\) , if and only if \( L \) can be already defined in \(\operatorname{FO}_{\leq}\) . Our approach is two-fold. First, we study universe-independent cardinality quantifiers \(\operatorname{\mathsf{Q}}\) defined by a parameter set \(S\subseteq\mathbb{N}\) and formulate a combinatorial criterion for \( S \) implying that all languages in \(\mathrm{DLOGTIME}\) -uniform \(\mathrm{TC^{0}}\) can be defined in \(\operatorname{FO}_{\leq}(\operatorname{\mathsf{Q}})\) . For instance, this criterion is satisfied if \( S \) is the range of some polynomial with positive integer coefficients of degree at least two. Second, by adapting the key properties of abstract logics to accommodate built-in relations, we define the regular interior \(\operatorname{\mathcal{R}-int}(\mathcal{L})\) (the largest regular \(\mathcal{L}^{*}\) such that \(\mathcal{L}^{*}\subseteq\mathcal{L}\) ) and regular closure \(\operatorname{\mathcal{R}-cl}(\mathcal{L})\) (the least regular \(\mathcal{L}^{*}\) such that \(\mathcal{L}\subseteq\mathcal{L}^{*}\) ), of a logic \(\mathcal{L}\) with built-in relations, and show that the Crane Beach Conjecture can be interpreted as a statement concerning the regular interior of \(\mathcal{L}\) . By extending the results of Barrington et al., we further show that if \(\mathcal{B}=\{+\}\) , or \(\mathcal{B}\) contains only unary relations besides \(\leq\) , then \(\operatorname{\mathcal{R}-int}(\operatorname{FO}_{\mathcal{B}})\equiv \operatorname{FO}_{\leq}\)

We study Lindström quantifiers that satisfy certain closure properties which are motivated by the study of polymorphisms in the context of constraint satisfaction problems (CSP). When the algebra of polymorphisms of a finite structure B satisfies certain equations, this gives rise to a natural closure condition on the class of structures that map homomorphically to B. The collection of quantifiers that satisfy closure conditions arising from a fixed set of equations are rather more general than those arising as CSP. For any such conditions P, we define a pebble game that delimits the distinguishing power of the infinitary logic with all quantifiers that are P-closed. We use the pebble game to show that the problem of deciding whether a system of linear equations is solvable in Z /2 Z is not expressible in the infinitary logic with all quantifiers closed under a near-unanimity condition.

Abstract A game that characterizes equivalence of structures with respect to all first-order sentences containing a given number of quantifiers was introduced by Immerman in 1981. We define three other games and prove that they are all equivalent to the Immerman game, and hence also give a characterization for the number of quantifiers needed for separating structures. In the Immerman game, Duplicator has a canonical optimal strategy, and hence Duplicator can be completely removed from the game by replacing her moves with default moves given by this optimal strategy. On the other hand, in the last two of our games there is no such optimal strategy for Duplicator. Thus, the Immerman game can be regarded as a one-player game, but two of our games are genuine two-player games.

Abstract We introduce three measures of complexity for families of sets. Each of the three measures, which we call dimensions, is defined in terms of the minimal number of convex subfamilies that are needed for covering the given family. For upper dimension, the subfamilies are required to contain a unique maximal set, for dual upper dimension a unique minimal set, and for cylindrical dimension both a unique maximal and a unique minimal set. In addition to considering dimensions of particular families of sets, we study the behavior of dimensions under operators that map families of sets to new families of sets. We identify natural sufficient criteria for such operators to preserve the growth class of the dimensions. We apply the theory of our dimensions for proving new hierarchy results for logics with team semantics. To this end we associate each atom with a natural notion or arity. First, we show that the standard logical operators preserve the growth classes of the families arising from the semantics of formulas in such logics. Second, we show that the upper dimension of $k+1$ -ary dependence, inclusion, independence, anonymity, and exclusion atoms is in a strictly higher growth class than that of any k-ary atoms, whence the $k+1$ -ary atoms are not definable in terms of any atoms of smaller arity.

We consider distributed algorithms in the realistic scenario where distributed message passing is operated by circuits. We show that within this setting, modal substitution calculus MSC precisely captures the expressive power of circuits. The result is established via constructing translations that are highly efficient in relation to size. We also observe that the coloring algorithm based on Cole-Vishkin can be specified by logarithmic size programs (and thus also logarithmic size circuits) in the bounded-degree scenario.

Abstract We consider the length of the longest word definable in FO and MSO via a formula of size n. For both logics we obtain as an upper bound for this number an exponential tower of height linear in n. We prove this by counting types with respect to a fixed quantifier rank. As lower bounds we obtain for both FO and MSO an exponential tower of height in the order of a rational power of n. We show these lower bounds by giving concrete formulas defining word representations of levels of the cumulative hierarchy of sets. In addition, we consider the Löwenheim-Skolem and Hanf numbers of these logics on words and obtain similar bounds for these as well.

Inclusion logic differs from many other logics of dependence and independence in that it can only describe polynomial-time properties. In this article we examine more closely connections between syntactic fragments of inclusion logic and different complexity classes. Our focus is on two computational problems: maximal subteam membership and the model checking problem for a fixed inclusion logic formula. We show that very simple quantifier-free formulae with one or two inclusion atoms generate instances of these problems that are complete for (non-deterministic) logarithmic space and polynomial time. We also present a safety game for the maximal subteam membership problem and use it to investigate this problem over teams in which one variable is a key. Furthermore, we relate our findings to consistent query answering over inclusion dependencies, and present a fragment of inclusion logic that captures non-deterministic logarithmic space in ordered models.

We investigate the computational complexity of the satisfiability problem of modal inclusion logic. We distinguish two variants of the problem: one for the strict and another one for the lax semantics. Both problems turn out to be EXPTIME-complete on general structures. Finally, we show how for a specific class of structures NEXPTIME-completeness for these problems under strict semantics can be achieved.

Abstract Propositional and modal inclusion logic are formalisms that belong to the family of logics based on team semantics. This article investigates the model checking and validity problems of these logics. We identify complexity bounds for both problems, covering both lax and strict team semantics. By doing so, we come close to finalizing the programme that aims to completely classify the complexities of the basic reasoning problems for modal and propositional dependence, independence and inclusion logics.

Abstract We propose a new version of formula size game for modal logic. The game characterizes the equivalence of pointed Kripke models up to formulas of given numbers of modal operators and binary connectives. Our game is similar to the well-known Adler–Immerman game. However, due to a crucial difference in the definition of positions of the game, its winning condition is simpler, and the second player does not have a trivial optimal strategy. Thus, unlike the Adler–Immerman game, our game is a genuine two-person game. We illustrate the use of the game by proving a non-elementary succinctness gap between bisimulation invariant first-order logic $\textrm{FO}$ and (basic) modal logic $\textrm{ML}$. We also present a version of the game for the modal $\mu $-calculus $\textrm{L}_\mu $ and show that $\textrm{FO}$ is also non-elementarily more succinct than $\textrm{L}_\mu $.

During the past decade, dependence logic has emerged as a formalism suitable for expressing and analyzing notions of dependence and independence that arise in different scientific areas. The sentences of dependence logic have the same expressive power as those of existential second-order logic, hence dependence logic captures NP on the class of all finite structures. In this paper, we identify a natural fragment of universal dependence logic and show that, in a precise sense, it captures constraint satisfaction. This tight connection between dependence logic and constraint satisfaction contributes to the descriptive complexity of constraint satisfaction and elucidates the expressive power of universal dependence logic.

We investigate the properties of Inclusion Logic, that is, First Order Logic with Team Semantics extended with inclusion dependencies. We prove that Inclusion Logic is equivalent to Greatest Fixed Point Logic, and we prove that all union-closed first-order definable properties of relations are definable in it. We also provide an Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé game for Inclusion Logic, and give an example illustrating its use.

Kamp (PhD Thesis, University of California, LA) proved that the tense logic of the connectives Until and Since is expressively complete over the class DCLO of Dedekind complete linear orders in the sense that this logic can express exactly the same conditions over DCLO as first-order logic. In the present article a modification of the question of expressive completeness is considered—the question of whether there exists a basis consisting of a finite number of modal-logical connectives for monadic second-order logic. The notion of k-dimensional basis that Gabbay (1981, Aspects of Philosophical Logic, 91–117) defined relative to FO is generalized to arbitrary abstract logics, and it is shown that a finite 2-dimensional basis exists for MSO on the class FLO of all finite linear structures. Beauquier and Rabinovich (2002, J. Logic. Comput., 12, 243–253) have proven that there is no finite 1-dimensional basis for MSO on FLO. Thus, the result yielding a 2-dimensional basis cannot be improved.

This work presents a classification of weak models of distributed computing. We focus on deterministic distributed algorithms, and we study models of computing that are weaker versions of the widely-studied port-numbering model. In the port-numbering model, a node of degree d receives messages through d input ports and it sends messages through d output ports, both numbered with 1,2,...,d. In this work, VVc is the class of all graph problems that can be solved in the standard port-numbering model. We study the following subclasses of VVc:

We study adding aggregate operators, such as summing up elements of a column of a relation, to logics with counting mechanisms. The primary motivation comes from database applications, where aggregate operators are present in all real life query languages. Unlike other features of query languages, aggregates are not adequately captured by the existing logical formalisms. Consequently, all previous approaches to analyzing the expressive power of aggregation were only capable of producing partial results, depending on the allowed class of aggregate and arithmetic operations.We consider a powerful counting logic, and extend it with the set of all aggregate operators. We show that the resulting logic satisfies analogs of Hanf's and Gaifman's theorems, meaning that it can only express local properties. We consider a database query language that expresses all the standard aggregates found in commercial query languages, and show how it can be translated into the aggregate logic, thereby providing a number of expressivity bounds, that do not depend on a particular class of arithmetic functions, and that subsume all those previously known. We consider a restricted aggregate logic that gives us a tighter capture of database languages, and also use it to show that some questions on expressivity of aggregation cannot be answered without resolving some deep problems in complexity theory.

A sartorial query language facilitates the formulation of queries to a (string) database. One step towards an implementation of such a query language can be taken by defining a logical formalism expressing a known solution for the particular problem at hand. The simplicity of the logic is a desired property because the simpler the logic that the query language is based on, the more efficiently it can be implemented. We introduce a logical formalism for expressing approximate pattern matching. The formalism uses properties of the dynamic programming approach; a minimizing path of a dynamic programming table is expressed by using a formula in an extension of first-order logic (FO). We consider the well-known problems of k mismatches and k differences. Assuming first that k is given as a part of the input, those problems are expressed by using deterministic transitive closure logic (FO(DTC)) and transitive closure logic (FO(TC)), respectively. We believe that in the general case the k differences is not expressible in FO(DTC), and show that solving this question in the affirmative is at least as hard as separating LOGSPACE from NLOGSPACE. We show, however, that if k is fixed, the k differences problem can be expressed by an FO(DTC)formula.

We study adding aggregate operators, such as summing up elements of a column of a relation, to logics with counting mechanisms. The primary motivation comes from database applications, where aggregate operators are present in all real life query languages. Unlike other features of query languages, aggregates are not adequately captured by the existing logical formalisms. Consequently, all previous approaches to analyzing the expressive power of aggregation were only capable of producing partial results, depending on the allowed class of aggregate and arithmetic operations. We consider a powerful counting logic, and extend it with the set of all aggregate operators. We show that the resulting logic satisfies analogs of Hanf's and Gaifman's theorems, meaning that it can only express local properties. We consider a database query language that expresses all the standard aggregates found in commercial query languages, and show how it can be translated into the aggregate logic, thereby providing a number of expressivity bounds, that do not depend on a particular class of arithmetic functions, and that subsume all those previously known. We consider a restricted aggregate logic that gives us a tighter capture of database languages, end also use it to show that some questions on expressivity of aggregation cannot be answered without resolving some deep problems in complexity theory.

Abstract Many known tools for proving expressibility bounds for first-ordér logic are based on one of several locality properties. In this paper we characterize the relationship between those notions of locality. We note that Gaifman's locality theorem gives rise to two notions: one deals with sentences and one with open formulae. We prove that the former implies Hanf's notion of locality, which in turn implies Gaifman's locality for open formulae. Each of these implies the bounded degree property, which is one of the easiest tools for proving expressibility bounds. These results apply beyond the first-order case. We use them to derive expressibility bounds for first-order logic with unary quantifiers and counting. We also characterize the notions of locality on structures of small degree.

Let Q be a finite set of generalized quantifiers. By L/sup k/(Q) we denote the k-variable fragment of FO(Q), first order logic extended with Q. We show that for each k, there is a PFP(Q)-definable linear pre-order whose equivalence classes in any finite structure 21 are the L/sup k/(Q)-types in 21. For some special classes of generalized quantifiers Q, we show that such an ordering of L/sup k/(Q)-types is already definable in IFP(Q). As applications of the above results, we prove some generalizations of the Abiteboul-Vianu theorem. For instance, we show that for any finite set Q of modular counting quantifiers, P=PSPACE if, and only if, IFP(Q)=PFP(Q) over finite structures. On the other hand, we show that an ordering of L/sup k/(Q)-types is not always definable in IFP(Q). Indeed, we construct a single, polynomial time computable quantifier P such that the equivalence relation /spl equiv//sup k,P/, and hence ordering on L/sup k/(P)-types, is not definable in IFP(P).

Let Q IPP be any quantifier such that FO(QIFP), first-order logic enhanced with Q IPP and its vectorizations, equals inductive fixed point logic, IFP in expressive power. It is known that for certain quantifiers Q, the equivalence FO(QIFP) ≡ IFP is no longer true if Q is added on both sides. Rather, we have FO (QIFP, Q) < IFP(Q) in such cases. We extend these results to a great variety of quantifiers, namely all unbounded simple cardinality quantifiers. Our argument also applies to partial fixed point logic, PFP. In order to establish an analogous result for least fixed point logic, LFP, we exhibit a general method to pass from arbitrary quantifiers to monotone quantifiers. Our proof shows that the three isomorphism problem is not definable in, infinitary logic extended with all monadic quantifiers and their vectorizations, where a finite bound is imposed to the number of variables as well as to the number of nested quantifiers in Q1. This strengthens a result of Etessami and Immerman by which tree isomorphism is not definable in TC + COUNTING.

Abstract The concept of a generalized quantifier of a given similarity type was defined in [12]. Our main result says that on finite structures different similarity types give rise to different classes of generalized quantifiers. More exactly, for every similarity typetthere is a generalized quantifier of typetwhich is not definable in the extension of first order logic by all generalized quantifiers of type smaller thant. This was proved for unary similarity types by Per Lindström [17] with a counting argument. We extend his method to arbitrary similarity types.

We consider extensions of first order logic (FO) and fixed [Bpoint logic (FP) by means of generalized quantifiers in the sense of P. Lindstrom (1966). We show that adding a finite set of such quantifiers to FP fails to capture PTIME, even over a fixed signature. We also prove a stronger version of this result for PSPACE, which enables us to establish a weak version of a conjecture formulated previously by Ph.G. Kolaitis and M.Y. Vardi (1992). These results are obtained by defining a notion of element type for bounded variable logics with finitely many generalized quantifiers. Using these, we characterize the classes of finite structures over which the infinitary logic L/sub /spl infin/wsup w/ extended by a finite set of generalized quantifiers Q and is no more expressive than first order logic extended by the quantifiers in Q.>

We describe on a systematic investigation of the definability of linear order on classes of finite rigid structures. We obtain upper and lower bounds for the expressibility of linear order in various logics that have been studied extensively in finite model theory such as fixpoint logic (FP), partial fixpoint logic (PFP), infinitary logic /spl Lscrsub /spl infin/wsup w/ with a finite number of variables, as well as the closures of these logics under implicit definitions. Moreover, we show that the upper and lower bounds established here can not be improved dramatically, unless outstanding conjectures in complexity theory are resolved at the same time.>

A generalized quantifier is n-ary if it binds any finite number of formulas, but at most n variables in each formula. It is proved that for each integer n, there is a property of finite models which is expressible in fixpoint logic, or even in DATALOG, but not in the extension of first-order logic by any set of n-ary quantifiers. It follows that no extension of first-order logic by a finite set of quantifiers captures all DATALOG-definable properties. Furthermore, it is proved that for each integer n, there is a LOGSPACE-computable property of finite models which is not definable in any extension of fixpoint logic by n-ary quantifiers. Hence, the expressive power of LOGSPACE, and a fortiori, that of PTIME, cannot be captured by adding to fixpoint logic any set of quantifiers of bounded arity.>

Abstract We prove that if ℵα is uncountable and regular, then the Beth-closure of ℒωω(Qα) is not a sublogic of ℒαω(Qn), where Qn is the class of all n-ary generalized quantifiers. In particular, B(ℒωω(Qα)) is not a sublogic of any finitely generated logic; i.e., there does not exist a finite set Q of Lindström quantifiers such that B(ℒωω(Qα)) ≤ ℒωω(Q).