In 1960, E. P. Wigner, a joint winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics, published a paper titl... more In 1960, E. P. Wigner, a joint winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics, published a paper titled On the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences [61]. This paper can be construed as an examination and affirmation of Galileo's tenet that “The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics”. To this effect, Wigner presented a large number of examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of mathematics in accurately describing physical phenomena. Wigner viewed these examples as illustrations of what he called the empirical law of epistemology, which asserts that the mathematical formulation of the laws of nature is both appropriate and accurate, and that mathematics is actually the correct language for formulating the laws of nature. At the same time, Wigner pointed out that the reasons for the success of mathematics in the natural sciences are not completely understood; in fact, he went as far as asserting that “… the enormous usefulness of math...
The fully enriched μ-calculus is the extension of the propositional μ-calculus with inverse progr... more The fully enriched μ-calculus is the extension of the propositional μ-calculus with inverse programs, graded modalities, and nominals. While satisfiability in several expressive fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus is known to be decidable and ExpTime-complete, it has recently been proved that the full calculus is undecidable. In this paper, we study the fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus that are obtained by dropping at least one of the additional constructs. We show that, in all fragments obtained in this way, satisfiability is decidable and ExpTime-complete. Thus, we identify a family of decidable logics that are maximal (and incomparable) in expressive power. Our results are obtained by introducing two new automata models, showing that their emptiness problems are ExpTime-complete, and then reducing satisfiability in the relevant logics to these problems. The automata models we introduce are two-way graded alternating parity automata over infinite trees (2GAPTs) an...
Synthesis is the automatic construction of a system from its specification. In classical synthesi... more Synthesis is the automatic construction of a system from its specification. In classical synthesis algorithms, it is always assumed that the system is "constructed from scratch" rather than composed from reusable components. This, of course, rarely happens in real life, where almost every non-trivial commercial software system relies heavily on using libraries of reusable components. Furthermore, other contexts, such as web-service orchestration, can be modeled as synthesis of a system from a library of components. Recently, Lustig and Vardi introduced dataflow and control-flow synthesis from libraries of reusable components. They proved that dataflow synthesis is undecidable, while control-flow synthesis is decidable. In this work, we consider the problem of control-flow synthesis from libraries of probabilistic components . We show that this more general problem is also decidable.
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2020
In synthesis, assumptions are constraints on the environment that rule out certain environment be... more In synthesis, assumptions are constraints on the environment that rule out certain environment behaviors. A key observation here is that even if we consider systems with LTLƒ goals on finite traces, environment assumptions need to be expressed over infinite traces, since accomplishing the agent goals may require an unbounded number of environment action. To solve synthesis with respect to finite-trace LTLƒ goals under infinite-trace assumptions, we could reduce the problem to LTL synthesis. Unfortunately, while synthesis in LTLƒ and in LTL have the same worst-case complexity (both 2EXPTIME-complete), the algorithms available for LTL synthesis are much more difficult in practice than those for LTLƒ synthesis. In this work we show that in interesting cases we can avoid such a detour to LTL synthesis and keep the simplicity of LTLƒ synthesis. Specifically, we develop a BDD-based fixpoint-based technique for handling basic forms of fairness and of stability assumptions. We show, empiric...
Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
In synthesis, assumption are constraints on the environments that rule out certain environment be... more In synthesis, assumption are constraints on the environments that rule out certain environment behaviors. A key observation is that even if we consider system with LTLf goals on finite traces, assumptions need to be expressed considering infinite traces, using LTL on infinite traces, since the decision to stop the trace is controlled by the agent. To solve synthesis of LTLf goals under LTL assumptions, we could reduce the problem to LTL synthesis. Unfortunately, while synthesis in LTLf and in LTL have the same worst-case complexity (both are 2EXPTIME-complete), the algorithms available for LTL synthesis are much harder in practice than those for LTLf synthesis. Recently, it has been shown that in basic forms of fairness and stability assumptions we can avoid such a detour to LTL and keep the simplicity of LTLf synthesis. In this paper, we generalize these results and show how to effectively handle any kind of LTL assumptions. Specifically, we devise a two-stage technique for solving...
Strategy Logic (SL, for short) has been introduced by Mogavero, Murano, and Vardi as a useful for... more Strategy Logic (SL, for short) has been introduced by Mogavero, Murano, and Vardi as a useful formalism for reasoning explicitly about strategies, as first-order objects, in multi-agent concurrent games. This logic turns out to be very powerful, subsuming all major previously studied modal logics for strategic reasoning, including ATL, ATL*, and the like. Unfortunately, due to its high expressiveness, SL has a non-elementarily decidable model-checking problem and the satisfiability question is undecidable, specifically Sigma_1^1. In order to obtain a decidable sublogic, we introduce and study here One-Goal Strategy Logic (SL[1G], for short). This is a syntactic fragment of SL, strictly subsuming ATL*, which encompasses formulas in prenex normal form having a single temporal goal at a time, for every strategy quantification of agents. We prove that, unlike SL, SL[1G] has the bounded tree-model property and its satisfiability problem is decidable in 2ExpTime, thus not harder than the ...
We introduce an extension of Strategy Logic for the imperfect-information setting, called SL ii a... more We introduce an extension of Strategy Logic for the imperfect-information setting, called SL ii and study its model-checking problem. As this logic naturally captures multi-player games with imperfect information, this problem is undecidable; but we introduce a syntactical class of “hierarchical instances” for which, intuitively, as one goes down the syntactic tree of the formula, strategy quantifications are concerned with finer observations of the model, and we prove that model-checking SL ii restricted to hierarchical instances is decidable. This result, because it allows for complex patterns of existential and universal quantification on strategies, greatly generalises the decidability of distributed synthesis for systems with hierarchical information. It allows us to easily derive new decidability results concerning strategic problems under imperfect information such as the existence of Nash equilibria or rational synthesis. To establish this result, we go through an intermedia...
In 1960, E. P. Wigner, a joint winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics, published a paper titl... more In 1960, E. P. Wigner, a joint winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics, published a paper titled On the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences [61]. This paper can be construed as an examination and affirmation of Galileo's tenet that “The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics”. To this effect, Wigner presented a large number of examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of mathematics in accurately describing physical phenomena. Wigner viewed these examples as illustrations of what he called the empirical law of epistemology, which asserts that the mathematical formulation of the laws of nature is both appropriate and accurate, and that mathematics is actually the correct language for formulating the laws of nature. At the same time, Wigner pointed out that the reasons for the success of mathematics in the natural sciences are not completely understood; in fact, he went as far as asserting that “… the enormous usefulness of math...
The fully enriched μ-calculus is the extension of the propositional μ-calculus with inverse progr... more The fully enriched μ-calculus is the extension of the propositional μ-calculus with inverse programs, graded modalities, and nominals. While satisfiability in several expressive fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus is known to be decidable and ExpTime-complete, it has recently been proved that the full calculus is undecidable. In this paper, we study the fragments of the fully enriched μ-calculus that are obtained by dropping at least one of the additional constructs. We show that, in all fragments obtained in this way, satisfiability is decidable and ExpTime-complete. Thus, we identify a family of decidable logics that are maximal (and incomparable) in expressive power. Our results are obtained by introducing two new automata models, showing that their emptiness problems are ExpTime-complete, and then reducing satisfiability in the relevant logics to these problems. The automata models we introduce are two-way graded alternating parity automata over infinite trees (2GAPTs) an...
Synthesis is the automatic construction of a system from its specification. In classical synthesi... more Synthesis is the automatic construction of a system from its specification. In classical synthesis algorithms, it is always assumed that the system is "constructed from scratch" rather than composed from reusable components. This, of course, rarely happens in real life, where almost every non-trivial commercial software system relies heavily on using libraries of reusable components. Furthermore, other contexts, such as web-service orchestration, can be modeled as synthesis of a system from a library of components. Recently, Lustig and Vardi introduced dataflow and control-flow synthesis from libraries of reusable components. They proved that dataflow synthesis is undecidable, while control-flow synthesis is decidable. In this work, we consider the problem of control-flow synthesis from libraries of probabilistic components . We show that this more general problem is also decidable.
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2020
In synthesis, assumptions are constraints on the environment that rule out certain environment be... more In synthesis, assumptions are constraints on the environment that rule out certain environment behaviors. A key observation here is that even if we consider systems with LTLƒ goals on finite traces, environment assumptions need to be expressed over infinite traces, since accomplishing the agent goals may require an unbounded number of environment action. To solve synthesis with respect to finite-trace LTLƒ goals under infinite-trace assumptions, we could reduce the problem to LTL synthesis. Unfortunately, while synthesis in LTLƒ and in LTL have the same worst-case complexity (both 2EXPTIME-complete), the algorithms available for LTL synthesis are much more difficult in practice than those for LTLƒ synthesis. In this work we show that in interesting cases we can avoid such a detour to LTL synthesis and keep the simplicity of LTLƒ synthesis. Specifically, we develop a BDD-based fixpoint-based technique for handling basic forms of fairness and of stability assumptions. We show, empiric...
Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
In synthesis, assumption are constraints on the environments that rule out certain environment be... more In synthesis, assumption are constraints on the environments that rule out certain environment behaviors. A key observation is that even if we consider system with LTLf goals on finite traces, assumptions need to be expressed considering infinite traces, using LTL on infinite traces, since the decision to stop the trace is controlled by the agent. To solve synthesis of LTLf goals under LTL assumptions, we could reduce the problem to LTL synthesis. Unfortunately, while synthesis in LTLf and in LTL have the same worst-case complexity (both are 2EXPTIME-complete), the algorithms available for LTL synthesis are much harder in practice than those for LTLf synthesis. Recently, it has been shown that in basic forms of fairness and stability assumptions we can avoid such a detour to LTL and keep the simplicity of LTLf synthesis. In this paper, we generalize these results and show how to effectively handle any kind of LTL assumptions. Specifically, we devise a two-stage technique for solving...
Strategy Logic (SL, for short) has been introduced by Mogavero, Murano, and Vardi as a useful for... more Strategy Logic (SL, for short) has been introduced by Mogavero, Murano, and Vardi as a useful formalism for reasoning explicitly about strategies, as first-order objects, in multi-agent concurrent games. This logic turns out to be very powerful, subsuming all major previously studied modal logics for strategic reasoning, including ATL, ATL*, and the like. Unfortunately, due to its high expressiveness, SL has a non-elementarily decidable model-checking problem and the satisfiability question is undecidable, specifically Sigma_1^1. In order to obtain a decidable sublogic, we introduce and study here One-Goal Strategy Logic (SL[1G], for short). This is a syntactic fragment of SL, strictly subsuming ATL*, which encompasses formulas in prenex normal form having a single temporal goal at a time, for every strategy quantification of agents. We prove that, unlike SL, SL[1G] has the bounded tree-model property and its satisfiability problem is decidable in 2ExpTime, thus not harder than the ...
We introduce an extension of Strategy Logic for the imperfect-information setting, called SL ii a... more We introduce an extension of Strategy Logic for the imperfect-information setting, called SL ii and study its model-checking problem. As this logic naturally captures multi-player games with imperfect information, this problem is undecidable; but we introduce a syntactical class of “hierarchical instances” for which, intuitively, as one goes down the syntactic tree of the formula, strategy quantifications are concerned with finer observations of the model, and we prove that model-checking SL ii restricted to hierarchical instances is decidable. This result, because it allows for complex patterns of existential and universal quantification on strategies, greatly generalises the decidability of distributed synthesis for systems with hierarchical information. It allows us to easily derive new decidability results concerning strategic problems under imperfect information such as the existence of Nash equilibria or rational synthesis. To establish this result, we go through an intermedia...
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