Abstract
We consider monadic second order logic (MSO) and the modal μ-calculus (Lμ) over transition systems (Kripke structures). It is well known that every class of transition systems which is definable by a sentence of Lμ is definable by a sentence of MSO as well. It will be shown that the converse is also true for an important fragment of MSO: every class of transition systems which is MSO-definable and which is closed under bisimulation - i.e., the sentence does not distinguish between bisimilar models - is also Lμ-definable. Hence we obtain the following expressive completeness result: the bisimulation invariant fragment of MSO and Lμ are equivalent. The result was proved by David Janin and Igor Walukiewicz. Our presentation is based on their article [91]. The main step is the development of automata-based characterizations of Lμ over arbitrary transition systems and of MSO over transition trees (see also Chapter 16). It turns out that there is a general notion of automaton subsuming both characterizations, so we obtain a common ground to compare these two logics. Moreover we need the notion of the ω-unravelling for a transition system, on the one hand to obtain a bisimilar transition tree and on the other hand to increase the possibilities of choosing successors.
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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Rohde, P. (2002). Expressive Power of Monadic Second-Order Logic and Modal μ-Calculus. In: Grädel, E., Thomas, W., Wilke, T. (eds) Automata Logics, and Infinite Games. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2500. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36387-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36387-4_14
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