arXiv subjects

Jesse Comer

Publications and source records attributed to Jesse Comer.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Complexity of Finding Missing Answer Repairs

We investigate the problem of identifying database repairs for missing tuples in query answers. We show that when the query is part of the input - the combined complexity setting - determining whether or not a repair exists is polynomial-time is equivalent to the satisfiability problem for classes of queries admitting a weak form of projection and selection. We then identify the sub-classes of unions of conjunctive queries with negated atoms, defined by the relational algebra operations permitted to appear in the query, for which the minimal repair problem can be solved in polynomial time. In contrast, we show that the problem is NP-hard, as well as set cover-hard to approximate via strict reductions, whenever both projection and join are permitted in the input query. Additionally, we show that finding the size of a minimal repair for unions of conjunctive queries (with negated atoms permitted) is OptP[log(n)]-complete, while computing a minimal repair is possible with O($n^2$) queries to an NP oracle. With recursion permitted, the combined complexity of all of these variants increases significantly, with an EXP lower bound. However, from the data complexity perspective, we show that minimal repairs can be identified in polynomial time for all queries expressible as semi-positive datalog programs.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2025

Interpolation in First-Order Logic

In this chapter we give a basic overview of known results regarding Craig interpolation for first-order logic as well as for fragments of first-order logic. Our aim is to provide an entry point into the literature on interpolation theorems for first-order logic and fragments of first-order logic, and their applications. In particular, we cover a range of known refinements of the Craig interpolation theorem, we discuss several important applications of interpolation in logic and computer science, we review known results about interpolation for important syntactic fragments of first-order logic, and we discuss the problem of computing interpolants.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2025

A Unifying Algorithm for Hierarchical Queries

The class of hierarchical queries is known to define the boundary of the dichotomy between tractability and intractability for the following two extensively studied problems about self-join free Boolean conjunctive queries (SJF-BCQ): (i) evaluating a SJF-BCQ on a tuple-independent probabilistic database; (ii) computing the Shapley value of a fact in a database on which a SJF-BCQ evaluates to true. Here, we establish that hierarchical queries define also the boundary of the dichotomy between tractability and intractability for a different natural algorithmic problem, which we call the "bag-set maximization" problem. The bag-set maximization problem associated with a SJF-BCQ $Q$ asks: given a database $\cal D$, find the biggest value that $Q$ takes under bag semantics on a database $\cal D'$ obtained from $\cal D$ by adding at most $\theta$ facts from another given database $\cal D^r$. For non-hierarchical queries, we show that the bag-set maximization problem is an NP-complete optimization problem. More significantly, for hierarchical queries, we show that all three aforementioned problems (probabilistic query evaluation, Shapley value computation, and bag-set maximization) admit a single unifying polynomial-time algorithm that operates on an abstract algebraic structure, called a "2-monoid". Each of the three problems requires a different instantiation of the 2-monoid tailored for the problem at hand.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2024

Lov\'asz Theorems for Modal Languages

A famous result due to Lov\'{a}sz states that two finite relational structures $M$ and $N$ are isomorphic if, and only if, for all finite relational structures $T$, the number of homomorphisms from $T$ to $M$ is equal to the number of homomorphisms from $T$ to $N$. Since first-order logic (FOL) can describe finite structures up to isomorphism, this can be interpreted as a characterization of FOL-equivalence via homomorphism-count indistinguishability with respect to the class of finite structures. We identify classes of labeled transition systems (LTSs) such that homomorphism-count indistinguishability with respect to these classes, where "counting" is done within an appropriate semiring structure, captures equivalence with respect to positive-existential modal logic, graded modal logic, and hybrid logic, as well as the extensions of these logics with either backward or global modalities. Our positive results apply not only to finite structures, but also to certain well-behaved infinite structures. We also show that equivalence with respect to positive modal logic and equivalence with respect to the basic modal language are not captured by homomorphism-count indistinguishability with respect to any class of LTSs, regardless of which semiring is used for counting.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2024

Technical Report: Time-Bounded Resilience

Most research on formal system design has focused on optimizing various measures of efficiency. However, insufficient attention has been given to the design of systems optimizing resilience, the ability of systems to adapt to unexpected changes or adversarial disruptions. In our prior work, we formalized the intuitive notion of resilience as a property of cyber-physical systems by using a multiset rewriting language with explicit time. In the present paper, we study the computational complexity of a formalization of time-bounded resilience problems for the class of $\eta$-simple progressing planning scenarios, where, intuitively, it is simple to check that a system configuration is critical, and only a finite number of actions can be carried out in a bounded time period. We show that, in the time-bounded model with $n$ (potentially adversarially chosen) updates, the corresponding time-bounded resilience problem for this class of systems is complete for the $\Sigma^P_{2n+1}$ class of the polynomial hierarchy, PH. To support the formal models and complexity results, we perform automated experiments for time-bounded verification using the rewriting logic tool Maude.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2023

Craig Interpolation for Decidable First-Order Fragments

We show that the guarded-negation fragment is, in a precise sense, the smallest extension of the guarded fragment with Craig interpolation. In contrast, we show that full first-order logic is the smallest extension of both the two-variable fragment and the forward fragment with Craig interpolation. Similarly, we also show that all extensions of the two-variable fragment and of the fluted fragment with Craig interpolation are undecidable.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2023

Craig Interpolation for Guarded Fragments

We show that the guarded-negation fragment (GNFO) is, in a precise sense, the smallest extension of the guarded fragment (GFO) with Craig interpolation. In contrast, %we show that the smallest extension of the two-variable fragment (FO2) with Craig interpolation is full first-order logic.

cs.LO↗