Lilia Chagrova

First-order definability of modal formulas: a simplified proof of undecidability

Jeudi 6 novembre 2003 à 14 heures

Bureau 314 de l'Irit

Résumé : A new line of research has appeared in the seventies, connected with the fact that modal formulas can have a greater expressive power than classical first order ones. In this respect, the modal formulas are usually divided in two classes: formulas which are equivalent on Kripke frames to the conditions described by classical first-order formulas (first order definable formulas) and formulas which have no first-order equivalents. Thus the problem of deciding the first-order definability of modal (and other non-classical) formulas has become more and more examined. Its algorithmic solution was opened. In 1988 the lecturer has proved that the problem of first-order definability is algorithmically undecidable for intuitionistic formulas. From this, the undecidability of first-order definability in the modal case follows easily, but the proof was rather intricate and difficult of access for logicians which do not work with intuitionistic formulas. In this lecture, a new simpler proof is proposed.

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