Semi-simplicial set models for distributed knowledge

In recent years, a new class of models for multi-agent epistemic logic has emerged, based on simplicial complexes. Since then, many variants of these simplicial models have been investigated, giving rise to different logics and axiomatizations. In this paper, we present a further generalization, which encompasses all previously studied variants of simplicial models. Geometrically, this is achieved by generalizing beyond simplicial complexes, and considering instead semi-simplicial sets. By doing so, we define a new semantics for epistemic logic with distributed knowledge, where a group of agents may distinguish two worlds, even though each individual agent in the group is unable to distinguish them. As it turns out, these models are the geometric counterpart of a generalization of Kripke models, called “pseudo- models”. We show how to recover the previously defined variants of simplicial models as sub-classes of our models; and give a sound and complete axiomatization for each of them.