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Main Authors: Ahvonen, Veeti, Jaakkola, Reijo, Kuusisto, Antti
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07966
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author Ahvonen, Veeti
Jaakkola, Reijo
Kuusisto, Antti
author_facet Ahvonen, Veeti
Jaakkola, Reijo
Kuusisto, Antti
contents Recent research has applied modal substitution calculus (MSC) and its variants to characterize various computational frameworks such as graph neural networks (GNNs) and distributed computing systems. For example, it has been shown that the expressive power of recurrent graph neural networks coincides with graded modal substitution calculus GMSC, which is the extension of MSC with counting modalities. GMSC can be further extended with the counting global modality, resulting in the logic GGMSC which corresponds to GNNs with global readout mechanisms. In this paper we introduce a formula-size game that characterizes the expressive power of MSC, GMSC, GGMSC, and related logics. Furthermore, we study the expressiveness and model checking of logics in this family. We prove that MSC and its extensions (GMSC, GGMSC) are as expressive as linear tape-bounded Turing machines, while asynchronous variants are linked to modal mu-calculus and modal computation logic MCL. We establish that for MSC, GMSC and GGMSC, both combined and data complexity of model checking are PSPACE-complete, and for their asynchronous variants, both complexities are PTIME-complete. We also establish that for the propositional fragment SC of MSC, the combined complexity of model checking is PSPACE-complete, while for asynchronous SC it is PTIME-complete, and in both cases, data complexity is constant. As a corollary, we observe that SC satisfiability is PSPACE-complete and NP-complete for its asynchronous variant. Finally, we construct a universal reduction from all recursively enumerable problems to MSC model checking.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_07966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Formula size game and model checking for modal substitution calculus
Ahvonen, Veeti
Jaakkola, Reijo
Kuusisto, Antti
Logic in Computer Science
Recent research has applied modal substitution calculus (MSC) and its variants to characterize various computational frameworks such as graph neural networks (GNNs) and distributed computing systems. For example, it has been shown that the expressive power of recurrent graph neural networks coincides with graded modal substitution calculus GMSC, which is the extension of MSC with counting modalities. GMSC can be further extended with the counting global modality, resulting in the logic GGMSC which corresponds to GNNs with global readout mechanisms. In this paper we introduce a formula-size game that characterizes the expressive power of MSC, GMSC, GGMSC, and related logics. Furthermore, we study the expressiveness and model checking of logics in this family. We prove that MSC and its extensions (GMSC, GGMSC) are as expressive as linear tape-bounded Turing machines, while asynchronous variants are linked to modal mu-calculus and modal computation logic MCL. We establish that for MSC, GMSC and GGMSC, both combined and data complexity of model checking are PSPACE-complete, and for their asynchronous variants, both complexities are PTIME-complete. We also establish that for the propositional fragment SC of MSC, the combined complexity of model checking is PSPACE-complete, while for asynchronous SC it is PTIME-complete, and in both cases, data complexity is constant. As a corollary, we observe that SC satisfiability is PSPACE-complete and NP-complete for its asynchronous variant. Finally, we construct a universal reduction from all recursively enumerable problems to MSC model checking.
title Formula size game and model checking for modal substitution calculus
topic Logic in Computer Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07966