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Thomas Zeume

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Zeume.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

Work-sensitive Dynamic Complexity of Formal Languages

Which amount of parallel resources is needed for updating a query result after changing an input? In this work we study the amount of work required for dynamically answering membership and range queries for formal languages in parallel constant time with polynomially many processors. As a prerequisite, we propose a framework for specifying dynamic, parallel, constant-time programs that require small amounts of work. This framework is based on the dynamic descriptive complexity framework by Patnaik and Immerman.

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arXiv2020

Dynamic complexity of Reachability: How many changes can we handle?

In 2015, it was shown that reachability for arbitrary directed graphs can be updated by first-order formulas after inserting or deleting single edges. Later, in 2018, this was extended for changes of size $\frac{\log n}{\log \log n}$, where $n$ is the size of the graph. Changes of polylogarithmic size can be handled when also majority quantifiers may be used. In this paper we extend these results by showing that, for changes of polylogarithmic size, first-order update formulas suffice for maintaining (1) undirected reachability, and (2) directed reachability under insertions. For classes of directed graphs for which efficient parallel algorithms can compute non-zero circulation weights, reachability can be maintained with update formulas that may use "modulo 2" quantifiers under changes of polylogarithmic size. Examples for these classes include the class of planar graphs and graphs with bounded treewidth. The latter is shown here. As the logics we consider cannot maintain reachability under changes of larger sizes, our results are optimal with respect to the size of the changes.

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arXiv2019

Dynamic Complexity Meets Parameterised Algorithms

Dynamic Complexity studies the maintainability of queries with logical formulas in a setting where the underlying structure or database changes over time. Most often, these formulas are from first-order logic, giving rise to the dynamic complexity class DynFO. This paper investigates extensions of DynFO in the spirit of parameterised algorithms. In this setting structures come with a parameter $k$ and the extensions allow additional "space" of size $f(k)$ (in the form of an additional structure of this size) or additional time $f(k)$ (in the form of iterations of formulas) or both. The resulting classes are compared with their non-dynamic counterparts and other classes. The main part of the paper explores the applicability of methods for parameterised algorithms to this setting through case studies for various well-known parameterised problems.

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arXiv2019

A Strategy for Dynamic Programs: Start over and Muddle through

In the setting of DynFO, dynamic programs update the stored result of a query whenever the underlying data changes. This update is expressed in terms of first-order logic. We introduce a strategy for constructing dynamic programs that utilises periodic computation of auxiliary data from scratch and the ability to maintain a query for a limited number of change steps. We show that if some program can maintain a query for log n change steps after an AC$^1$-computable initialisation, it can be maintained by a first-order dynamic program as well, i.e., in DynFO. As an application, it is shown that decision and optimisation problems defined by monadic second-order (MSO) formulas are in DynFO, if only change sequences that produce graphs of bounded treewidth are allowed. To establish this result, a Feferman-Vaught-type composition theorem for MSO is established that might be useful in its own right.

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arXiv2019

A More General Theory of Static Approximations for Conjunctive Queries

Conjunctive query (CQ) evaluation is NP-complete, but becomes tractable for fragments of bounded hypertreewidth. Approximating a hard CQ by a query from such a fragment can thus allow for an efficient approximate evaluation. While underapproximations (i.e., approximations that return correct answers only) are well-understood, the dual notion of overapproximations (i.e, approximations that return complete - but not necessarily sound - answers), and also a more general notion of approximation based on the symmetric difference of query results, are almost unexplored. In fact, the decidability of the basic problems of evaluation, identification, and existence of those approximations has been open. This article establishes a connection between overapproximations and existential pebble games that allows for studying such problems systematically. Building on this connection, it is shown that the evaluation and identification problem for overapproximations can be solved in polynomial time. While the general existence problem remains open, the problem is shown to be decidable in 2EXPTIME over the class of acyclic CQs and in PTIME for Boolean CQs over binary schemata. Additionally we propose a more liberal notion of overapproximations to remedy the known shortcoming that queries might not have an overapproximation, and study how queries can be overapproximated in the presence of tuple generating and equality generating dependencies. The techniques are then extended to symmetric difference approximations and used to provide several complexity results for the identification, existence, and evaluation problem for this type of approximations.

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arXiv2018

Reachability and Distances under Multiple Changes

Recently it was shown that the transitive closure of a directed graph can be updated using first-order formulas after insertions and deletions of single edges in the dynamic descriptive complexity framework by Dong, Su, and Topor, and Patnaik and Immerman. In other words, Reachability is in DynFO. In this article we extend the framework to changes of multiple edges at a time, and study the Reachability and Distance queries under these changes. We show that the former problem can be maintained in DynFO$(+, \times)$ under changes affecting O($\frac{\log n}{\log \log n}$) nodes, for graphs with $n$ nodes. If the update formulas may use a majority quantifier then both Reachability and Distance can be maintained under changes that affect O($\log^c n$) nodes, for fixed $c \in \mathbb{N}$. Some preliminary results towards showing that distances are in DynFO are discussed.

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arXiv2018

Introduction to Iltis: An Interactive, Web-Based System for Teaching Logic

Logic is a foundation for many modern areas of computer science. In artificial intelligence, as a basis of database query languages, as well as in formal software and hardware verification --- modelling scenarios using logical formalisms and inferring new knowledge are important skills for going-to-be computer scientists. The Iltis project aims at providing a web-based, interactive system that supports teaching logical methods. In particular the system shall (a) support to learn to model knowledge and to infer new knowledge using propositional logic, modal logic and first-order logic, and (b) provide immediate feedback and support to students. This article presents a prototypical system that currently supports the above tasks for propositional logic. First impressions on its use in a second year logic course for computer science students are reported.

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arXiv2017

Reachability is in DynFO

Patnaik and Immerman introduced the dynamic complexity class DynFO of database queries that can be maintained by first-order dynamic programs with the help of auxiliary relations under insertions and deletions of edges (Patnaik and Immerman 1997). This article confirms their conjecture that the Reachability query is in DynFO. As a byproduct it is shown that the rank of a matrix with small values can be maintained in DynFO(+,x). It is further shown that the (size of the) maximum matching of a graph can be maintained in non-uniform DynFO, another extension of DynFO, with non-uniform initialisation of the auxiliary relations.

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arXiv2017

Dynamic Conjunctive Queries

The article investigates classes of queries maintainable by conjunctive queries (CQs) and their extensions and restrictions in the dynamic complexity framework of Patnaik and Immerman. Starting from the basic language of quantifier-free conjunctions of positive atoms, it studies the impact of additional operators and features - such as union, atomic negation and quantification - on the dynamic expressiveness, for the standard semantics as well as for Delta-semantics. Although many different combinations of these features are possible, they basically yield five important fragments for the standard semantics, characterized by the addition of (1) arbitrary quantification and atomic negation, (2) existential quantification and atomic negation, (3) existential quantification, (4) atomic negation (but no quantification), and by (5) no addition to the basic language at all. While fragments (3), (4) and (5) can be separated, it remains open whether fragments (1), (2) and (3) are actually different. The fragments arising from Delta-semantics are also subsumed by the standard fragments (1), (2) and (4). The main fragments of DynFO that had been studied in previous work, DynQF and DynProp, characterized by quantifier-free update programs with or without auxiliary functions, respectively, also fit into this hierarchy: DynProp coincides with fragment (4) and DynQF is strictly above fragment (4) and within fragment (3). As a further result, all (statically) FO-definable queries are captured by fragment (2) and a complete characterization of these queries in terms of non-recursive dynamic programs with existential update formulas with one existential quantifier is given.

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arXiv2017

Dynamic Complexity under Definable Changes

This paper studies dynamic complexity under definable change operations in the DynFO framework by Patnaik and Immerman. It is shown that for changes definable by parameter-free first-order formulas, all (uniform) $AC^1$ queries can be maintained by first-order dynamic programs. Furthermore, many maintenance results for single-tuple changes are extended to more powerful change operations: (1) The reachability query for undirected graphs is first-order maintainable under single tuple changes and first-order defined insertions, likewise the reachability query for directed acyclic graphs under quantifier-free insertions. (2) Context-free languages are first-order maintainable under $Σ_1$-defined changes. These results are complemented by several inexpressibility results, for example, that the reachability query cannot be maintained by quantifier-free programs under definable, quantifier-free deletions.

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arXiv2016

The Dynamic Descriptive Complexity of k-Clique

In this work the dynamic descriptive complexity of the k-clique query is studied. It is shown that when edges may only be inserted then k-clique can be maintained by a quantifier-free update program of arity k-1, but it cannot be maintained by a quantifier-free update program of arity k-2 (even in the presence of unary auxiliary functions). This establishes an arity hierarchy for graph queries for quantifier-free update programs under insertions. The proof of the lower bound uses upper and lower bounds for Ramsey numbers.

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arXiv2016

Order-Invariance of Two-Variable Logic is Decidable

It is shown that order-invariance of two-variable first-logic is decidable in the finite. This is an immediate consequence of a decision procedure obtained for the finite satisfiability problem for existential second-order logic with two first-order variables ($\mathrm{ESO}^2$) on structures with two linear orders and one induced successor. We also show that finite satisfiability is decidable on structures with two successors and one induced linear order. In both cases, so far only decidability for monadic $\mathrm{ESO}^2$ has been known. In addition, the finite satisfiability problem for $\mathrm{ESO}^2$ on structures with one linear order and its induced successor relation is shown to be decidable in non-deterministic exponential time.

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arXiv2015

Dynamic Graph Queries

Graph databases in many applications---semantic web, transport or biological networks among others---are not only large, but also frequently modified. Evaluating graph queries in this dynamic context is a challenging task, as those queries often combine first-order and navigational features. Motivated by recent results on maintaining dynamic reachability, we study the dynamic evaluation of traditional query languages for graphs in the descriptive complexity framework. Our focus is on maintaining regular path queries, and extensions thereof, by first-order formulas. In particular we are interested in path queries defined by non-regular languages and in extended conjunctive regular path queries (which allow to compare labels of paths based on word relations). Further we study the closely related problems of maintaining distances in graphs and reachability in product graphs. In this preliminary study we obtain upper bounds for those problems in restricted settings, such as undirected and acyclic graphs, or under insertions only, and negative results regarding quantifier-free update formulas. In addition we point out interesting directions for further research.

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arXiv2015

Static Analysis for Logic-Based Dynamic Programs

A dynamic program, as introduced by Patnaik and Immerman (1994), maintains the result of a fixed query for an input database which is subject to tuple insertions and deletions. It can use an auxiliary database whose relations are updated via first-order formulas upon modifications of the input database. This paper studies static analysis problems for dynamic programs and investigates, more specifically, the decidability of the following three questions. Is the answer relation of a given dynamic program always empty? Does a program actually maintain a query? Is the content of auxiliary relations independent of the modification sequence that lead to an input database? In general, all these problems can easily be seen to be undecidable for full first-order programs. Therefore the paper aims at pinpointing the exact decidability borderline for programs with restricted arity (of the input and/or auxiliary database) and restricted quantification.

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arXiv2015

On the quantifier-free dynamic complexity of Reachability

The dynamic complexity of the reachability query is studied in the dynamic complexity framework of Patnaik and Immerman, restricted to quantifier-free update formulas. It is shown that, with this restriction, the reachability query cannot be dynamically maintained, neither with binary auxiliary relations nor with unary auxiliary functions, and that ternary auxiliary relations are more powerful with respect to graph queries than binary auxiliary relations. Further inexpressibility results are given for the reachability query in a different setting as well as for a syntactical restriction of quantifier-free update formulas. Moreover inexpressibility results for some other queries are presented.

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arXiv2012

Two-Variable Logic with Two Order Relations

It is shown that the finite satisfiability problem for two-variable logic over structures with one total preorder relation, its induced successor relation, one linear order relation and some further unary relations is EXPSPACE-complete. Actually, EXPSPACE-completeness already holds for structures that do not include the induced successor relation. As a special case, the EXPSPACE upper bound applies to two-variable logic over structures with two linear orders. A further consequence is that satisfiability of two-variable logic over data words with a linear order on positions and a linear order and successor relation on the data is decidable in EXPSPACE. As a complementing result, it is shown that over structures with two total preorder relations as well as over structures with one total preorder and two linear order relations, the finite satisfiability problem for two-variable logic is undecidable.

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arXiv2010

Temporal Logics on Words with Multiple Data Values

The paper proposes and studies temporal logics for attributed words, that is, data words with a (finite) set of (attribute,value)-pairs at each position. It considers a basic logic which is a semantical fragment of the logic $LTL^\downarrow_1$ of Demri and Lazic with operators for navigation into the future and the past. By reduction to the emptiness problem for data automata it is shown that this basic logic is decidable. Whereas the basic logic only allows navigation to positions where a fixed data value occurs, extensions are studied that also allow navigation to positions with different data values. Besides some undecidable results it is shown that the extension by a certain UNTIL-operator with an inequality target condition remains decidable.

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