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Main Authors: Piribauer, Jakob, Zschuppe, Vinzent
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05897
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author Piribauer, Jakob
Zschuppe, Vinzent
author_facet Piribauer, Jakob
Zschuppe, Vinzent
contents Iterative abstraction refinement techniques are one of the most prominent paradigms for the analysis and verification of systems with large or infinite state spaces. This paper investigates the changes of truth values of system properties expressible in computation tree logic (CTL) when abstractions of transition systems are refined. To this end, the paper utilizes modal logic by defining alethic modalities expressing possibility and necessity on top of CTL: The modal operator $\lozenge$ is interpreted as "there is a refinement, in which ..." and $\Box$ is interpreted as "in all refinements, ...". Upper and lower bounds for the resulting modal logics of abstraction refinement are provided for three scenarios: 1) when considering all finite abstractions of a transition system, 2) when considering all abstractions of a transition system, and 3) when considering the class of all transition systems. Furthermore, to prove these results, generic techniques to obtain upper bounds of modal logics using novel types of so-called control statements are developed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_05897
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Modal Logic of Abstraction Refinement
Piribauer, Jakob
Zschuppe, Vinzent
Logic in Computer Science
Iterative abstraction refinement techniques are one of the most prominent paradigms for the analysis and verification of systems with large or infinite state spaces. This paper investigates the changes of truth values of system properties expressible in computation tree logic (CTL) when abstractions of transition systems are refined. To this end, the paper utilizes modal logic by defining alethic modalities expressing possibility and necessity on top of CTL: The modal operator $\lozenge$ is interpreted as "there is a refinement, in which ..." and $\Box$ is interpreted as "in all refinements, ...". Upper and lower bounds for the resulting modal logics of abstraction refinement are provided for three scenarios: 1) when considering all finite abstractions of a transition system, 2) when considering all abstractions of a transition system, and 3) when considering the class of all transition systems. Furthermore, to prove these results, generic techniques to obtain upper bounds of modal logics using novel types of so-called control statements are developed.
title The Modal Logic of Abstraction Refinement
topic Logic in Computer Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05897