Automata-Theoretic Characterisations of Branching-Time Temporal Logics

Authors Massimo Benerecetti , Laura Bozzelli , Fabio Mogavero , Adriano Peron



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Massimo Benerecetti
  • Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Laura Bozzelli
  • Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Fabio Mogavero
  • Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Adriano Peron
  • Università di Trieste, Italy

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Massimo Benerecetti, Laura Bozzelli, Fabio Mogavero, and Adriano Peron. Automata-Theoretic Characterisations of Branching-Time Temporal Logics. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 128:1-128:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024) https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.128

Abstract

Characterisations theorems serve as important tools in model theory and can be used to assess and compare the expressive power of temporal languages used for the specification and verification of properties in formal methods. While complete connections have been established for the linear-time case between temporal logics, predicate logics, algebraic models, and automata, the situation in the branching-time case remains considerably more fragmented. In this work, we provide an automata-theoretic characterisation of some important branching-time temporal logics, namely CTL* and ECTL* interpreted on arbitrary-branching trees, by identifying two variants of Hesitant Tree Automata that are proved equivalent to those logics. The characterisations also apply to Monadic Path Logic and the bisimulation-invariant fragment of Monadic Chain Logic, again interpreted over trees. These results widen the characterisation landscape of the branching-time case and solve a forty-year-old open question.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Automata over infinite objects
  • Theory of computation → Modal and temporal logics
  • Theory of computation → Tree languages
Keywords
  • Branching-Time Temporal Logics
  • Monadic Second-Order Logics
  • Tree Automata

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