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Infinitary logic for computer science

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Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 1992)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 623))

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Abstract

Infinitary logic L ω∞ω , extends first-order logic by allowing infinitary conjunctions and disjunctions (i.e., conjunctions with an infinite number of conjuncts and disjunctions with an infinite number of disjuncts). One usually thinks of infinitary logic as a fairly esoteric logic, which is not of much interest in computer science. Surprisingly, a certain fragment L ω∞ω of L ω∞ω turns out to be of great interest in computer science. This fragment is obtained by restricting formulas to contain a finite number of distinct variables, though the formulas can be of infinite length, The advantage of dealing with L ω∞ω is that its the expressive power can be completely characterized in game-theoretic terms. We will describe applications of this logic to the study of 0–1 laws and the expressive power of database query languages.

During the preparation of this paper this author was partially supported by NSF Grant CCR-9108631

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Information Sciences, University of California, 95064, Santa Cruz, CA

    Phokion G. Kolaitis

  2. IBM Research, Almaden Research Center, 95120-6099, San Jose, CA

    Moshe Y. Vardi

Authors
  1. Phokion G. Kolaitis
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  2. Moshe Y. Vardi
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W. Kuich

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kolaitis, P.G., Vardi, M.Y. (1992). Infinitary logic for computer science. In: Kuich, W. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 623. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55719-9_96

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55719-9_96

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-55719-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47278-0

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