Finite Model Theory and Its Applications (Texts in Theoretical Computer Science. An EATCS Series)

出版者:Springer

作者:Erich Grädel

页数:437

出版时间:2007-06-11

价格:USD 79.95

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9783540004288

图书标签:计算机科学数理逻辑有穷模型论数学描述复杂性nemlophicsTCSRice

This book gives a comprehensive overview of central themes of finite model theory a " expressive power, descriptive complexity, and zero-one laws a " together with selected applications relating to database theory and artificial intelligence, especially constraint databases and constraint satisfaction problems. The final chapter provides a concise modern introduction to modal logic, emphasizing the continuity in spirit and technique with finite model theory. This underlying spirit involves the use of various fragments of and hierarchies within first-order, second-order, fixed-point, and infinitary logics to gain insight into phenomena in complexity theory and combinatorics. The book emphasizes the use of combinatorial games, such as extensions and refinements of the Ehrenfeucht-FraissA(c) pebble game, as a powerful way to analyze the expressive power of such logics, and illustrates how deep notions from model theory and combinatorics, such as o-minimality and treewidth, arise naturally in the application of finite model theory to database theory and AI. Students of logic and computer science will find here the tools necessary to embark on research into finite model theory, and all readers will experience the excitement of a vibrant area of the application of logic to computer science.