License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2022.7
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-158178
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2022/15817/
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Baumann, Pascal ; Ganardi, Moses ; Thinniyam, Ramanathan S. ; Zetzsche, Georg

Existential Definability over the Subword Ordering

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LIPIcs-STACS-2022-7.pdf (0.7 MB)

Abstract

We study first-order logic (FO) over the structure consisting of finite words over some alphabet A, together with the (non-contiguous) subword ordering. In terms of decidability of quantifier alternation fragments, this logic is well-understood: If every word is available as a constant, then even the Σ₁ (i.e., existential) fragment is undecidable, already for binary alphabets A.
However, up to now, little is known about the expressiveness of the quantifier alternation fragments: For example, the undecidability proof for the existential fragment relies on Diophantine equations and only shows that recursively enumerable languages over a singleton alphabet (and some auxiliary predicates) are definable.
We show that if |A| ≥ 3, then a relation is definable in the existential fragment over A with constants if and only if it is recursively enumerable. This implies characterizations for all fragments Σ_i: If |A| ≥ 3, then a relation is definable in Σ_i if and only if it belongs to the i-th level of the arithmetical hierarchy. In addition, our result yields an analogous complete description of the Σ_i-fragments for i ≥ 2 of the pure logic, where the words of A^* are not available as constants.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{baumann_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2022.7,
  author =	{Baumann, Pascal and Ganardi, Moses and Thinniyam, Ramanathan S. and Zetzsche, Georg},
  title =	{{Existential Definability over the Subword Ordering}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-222-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{219},
  editor =	{Berenbrink, Petra and Monmege, Benjamin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2022/15817},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-158178},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2022.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: subword, subsequence, definability, expressiveness, first order logic, existential fragment, quantifier alternation}
}

Keywords: subword, subsequence, definability, expressiveness, first order logic, existential fragment, quantifier alternation
Collection: 39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022)
Issue Date: 2022
Date of publication: 09.03.2022

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