Decidability of Querying First-Order Theories via Countermodels of Finite Width

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Feller, Thomas, Lyon, Tim S., Ostropolski-Nalewaja, Piotr, Rudolph, Sebastian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Feller, Thomas
Lyon, Tim S.
Ostropolski-Nalewaja, Piotr
Rudolph, Sebastian
author_facet Feller, Thomas
Lyon, Tim S.
Ostropolski-Nalewaja, Piotr
Rudolph, Sebastian
contents We propose a generic framework for establishing the decidability of a wide range of logical entailment problems (briefly called querying), based on the existence of countermodels that are structurally simple, gauged by certain types of width measures (with treewidth and cliquewidth as popular examples). As an important special case of our framework, we identify logics exhibiting width-finite finitely universal model sets, warranting decidable entailment for a wide range of homomorphism-closed queries, subsuming a diverse set of practically relevant query languages. As a particularly powerful width measure, we propose to employ Blumensath's partitionwidth, which subsumes various other commonly considered width measures and exhibits highly favorable computational and structural properties. Focusing on the formalism of existential rules as a popular showcase, we explain how finite partitionwidth sets of rules subsume other known abstract decidable classes but - leveraging existing notions of stratification - also cover a wide range of new rulesets. We expose natural limitations for fitting the class of finite unification sets into our picture and suggest several options for remedy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_06348
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Decidability of Querying First-Order Theories via Countermodels of Finite Width
Feller, Thomas
Lyon, Tim S.
Ostropolski-Nalewaja, Piotr
Rudolph, Sebastian
Logic in Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
Databases
Discrete Mathematics
Logic
We propose a generic framework for establishing the decidability of a wide range of logical entailment problems (briefly called querying), based on the existence of countermodels that are structurally simple, gauged by certain types of width measures (with treewidth and cliquewidth as popular examples). As an important special case of our framework, we identify logics exhibiting width-finite finitely universal model sets, warranting decidable entailment for a wide range of homomorphism-closed queries, subsuming a diverse set of practically relevant query languages. As a particularly powerful width measure, we propose to employ Blumensath's partitionwidth, which subsumes various other commonly considered width measures and exhibits highly favorable computational and structural properties. Focusing on the formalism of existential rules as a popular showcase, we explain how finite partitionwidth sets of rules subsume other known abstract decidable classes but - leveraging existing notions of stratification - also cover a wide range of new rulesets. We expose natural limitations for fitting the class of finite unification sets into our picture and suggest several options for remedy.
title Decidability of Querying First-Order Theories via Countermodels of Finite Width
topic Logic in Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
Databases
Discrete Mathematics
Logic
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06348