Lindstrom theorems for fragments of first-order logic

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Publication:3395097

DOI10.2168/LMCS-5(3:3)2009zbMATH Open1168.03017arXiv0905.3668MaRDI QIDQ3395097FDOQ3395097


Authors: Balder ten Cate, Jouko Väänänen, Johan van Benthem Edit this on Wikidata


Publication date: 20 August 2009

Published in: Logical Methods in Computer Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Lindstr"om theorems characterize logics in terms of model-theoretic conditions such as Compactness and the L"owenheim-Skolem property. Most existing characterizations of this kind concern extensions of first-order logic. But on the other hand, many logics relevant to computer science are fragments or extensions of fragments of first-order logic, e.g., k-variable logics and various modal logics. Finding Lindstr"om theorems for these languages can be challenging, as most known techniques rely on coding arguments that seem to require the full expressive power of first-order logic. In this paper, we provide Lindstr"om theorems for several fragments of first-order logic, including the k-variable fragments for k>2, Tarski's relation algebra, graded modal logic, and the binary guarded fragment. We use two different proof techniques. One is a modification of the original Lindstr"om proof. The other involves the modal concepts of bisimulation, tree unraveling, and finite depth. Our results also imply semantic preservation theorems.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0905.3668




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