{"title":"Game characterizations for the number of quantifiers","authors":"Lauri Hella, Kerkko Luosto","doi":"10.1017/s0960129523000415","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>A game that characterizes equivalence of structures with respect to all first-order sentences containing a given number of quantifiers was introduced by Immerman in 1981. We define three other games and prove that they are all equivalent to the Immerman game, and hence also give a characterization for the number of quantifiers needed for separating structures. In the Immerman game, Duplicator has a canonical optimal strategy, and hence Duplicator can be completely removed from the game by replacing her moves with default moves given by this optimal strategy. On the other hand, in the last two of our games there is no such optimal strategy for Duplicator. Thus, the Immerman game can be regarded as a one-player game, but two of our games are genuine two-player games.</p>","PeriodicalId":49855,"journal":{"name":"Mathematical Structures in Computer Science","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mathematical Structures in Computer Science","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0960129523000415","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A game that characterizes equivalence of structures with respect to all first-order sentences containing a given number of quantifiers was introduced by Immerman in 1981. We define three other games and prove that they are all equivalent to the Immerman game, and hence also give a characterization for the number of quantifiers needed for separating structures. In the Immerman game, Duplicator has a canonical optimal strategy, and hence Duplicator can be completely removed from the game by replacing her moves with default moves given by this optimal strategy. On the other hand, in the last two of our games there is no such optimal strategy for Duplicator. Thus, the Immerman game can be regarded as a one-player game, but two of our games are genuine two-player games.
期刊介绍：
Mathematical Structures in Computer Science is a journal of theoretical computer science which focuses on the application of ideas from the structural side of mathematics and mathematical logic to computer science. The journal aims to bridge the gap between theoretical contributions and software design, publishing original papers of a high standard and broad surveys with original perspectives in all areas of computing, provided that ideas or results from logic, algebra, geometry, category theory or other areas of logic and mathematics form a basis for the work. The journal welcomes applications to computing based on the use of specific mathematical structures (e.g. topological and order-theoretic structures) as well as on proof-theoretic notions or results.
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