A simplicial complex model for dynamic epistemic logic to study distributed task computability (Q2029604)

The usual \(\mathbf{S5_n}\) epistemic model for a multi-agent system is based on a Kripke frame, which is a graph whose edges are labeled with agents that do not distinguish between two states. The authors propose to uncover the higher dimensional information implicit in this structure, by considering a dual, simplicial complex model. They use dynamic epistemic logic (DEL) to study how an epistemic simplicial complex model changes after a set of agents communicate with each other. They concentrate on an action model that represents the so-called immediate snapshot communication patterns of asynchronous agents, because it is central to distributed computability (but the setting works for other communication patterns). There are topological invariants preserved from the initial epistemic complex to the one after the action model is applied, which determine the knowledge that the agents gain after communication. Finally, they describe how a distributed task specification can be modeled as a DEL action model, and show that the topological invariants determine whether the task is solvable. They thus provide a bridge between DEL and the topological theory of distributed computability, which studies task solvability in a shared memory or message passing architecture.