TY - GEN
T1 - Succinct graph representations of µ-calculus formulas
AU - Kupke, Clemens
AU - Marti, Johannes
AU - Venema, Yde
PY - 2022/2/19
Y1 - 2022/2/19
N2 - Many algorithmic results on the modal mu-calculus use representations of formulas such as alternating tree automata or hierarchical equation systems. At closer inspection, these results are not always optimal, since the exact relation between the formula and its representation is not clearly understood. In particular, there has been confusion about the definition of the fundamental notion of the size of a mu-calculus formula. We propose the notion of a parity formula as a natural way of representing a mu-calculus formula, and as a yardstick for measuring its complexity. We discuss the close connection of this concept with alternating tree automata, hierarchical equation systems and parity games. We show that well-known size measures for mu-calculus formulas correspond to a parity formula representation of the formula using its syntax tree, subformula graph or closure graph, respectively. Building on work by Bruse, Friedmann & Lange we argue that for optimal complexity results one needs to work with the closure graph, and thus define the size of a formula in terms of its Fischer-Ladner closure. As a new observation, we show that the common assumption of a formula being clean, that is, with every variable bound in at most one subformula, incurs an exponential blow-up of the size of the closure. To realise the optimal upper complexity bound of model checking for all formulas, our main result is to provide a construction of a parity formula that (a) is based on the closure graph of a given formula, (b) preserves the alternation-depth but (c) does not assume the input formula to be clean.
AB - Many algorithmic results on the modal mu-calculus use representations of formulas such as alternating tree automata or hierarchical equation systems. At closer inspection, these results are not always optimal, since the exact relation between the formula and its representation is not clearly understood. In particular, there has been confusion about the definition of the fundamental notion of the size of a mu-calculus formula. We propose the notion of a parity formula as a natural way of representing a mu-calculus formula, and as a yardstick for measuring its complexity. We discuss the close connection of this concept with alternating tree automata, hierarchical equation systems and parity games. We show that well-known size measures for mu-calculus formulas correspond to a parity formula representation of the formula using its syntax tree, subformula graph or closure graph, respectively. Building on work by Bruse, Friedmann & Lange we argue that for optimal complexity results one needs to work with the closure graph, and thus define the size of a formula in terms of its Fischer-Ladner closure. As a new observation, we show that the common assumption of a formula being clean, that is, with every variable bound in at most one subformula, incurs an exponential blow-up of the size of the closure. To realise the optimal upper complexity bound of model checking for all formulas, our main result is to provide a construction of a parity formula that (a) is based on the closure graph of a given formula, (b) preserves the alternation-depth but (c) does not assume the input formula to be clean.
KW - alternating tree automata
KW - hierachical equation systems
KW - modal mu-calculus
KW - model checking
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.14430
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124241076&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2022.29
DO - 10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2022.29
M3 - Conference contribution book
AN - SCOPUS:85124241076
T3 - Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
BT - 30th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic, CSL 2022
A2 - Manea, Florin
A2 - Simpson, Alex
PB - Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing
CY - Dagstuhl, Germany
T2 - 30th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic, CSL 2022
Y2 - 14 February 2022 through 19 February 2022
ER -