Dietmar Berwanger

DAG-Width and parity games

Tree-width is a well-known metric on undirected graphs that measures how tree-like a graph is and gives a notion of graph decomposition that proves useful in algorithm development. Tree-width is characterised by a game known as the cops-and-robber game where a number of cops chase a robber on the graph. We consider the natural adaptation of this game to directed graphs and show that monotone strategies in the game yield a measure with an associated notion of graph decomposition that can be seen to describe how close a directed graph is to a directed acyclic graph (DAG). This promises to be useful in developing algorithms on directed graphs. In particular, we show that the problem of determining the winner of a parity game is solvable in polynomial time on graphs of bounded DAG-width. We also consider the relationship between DAG-width and other measures such as entanglement and directed tree-width. One consequence we obtain is that certain NP-complete problems such as Hamiltonicity and disjoint paths are polynomial-time computable on graphs of bounded DAG-width.

Entanglement – A Measure for the Complexity of Directed Graphs with Applications to Logic and Games

We propose a new parameter for the complexity of finite directed graphs which measures to what extent the cycles of the graph are intertwined. This measure, called entanglement, is defined by way of a game that is somewhat similar in spirit to the robber and cops games used to describe tree width, directed tree width, and hypertree width. Nevertheless, on many classes of graphs, there are significant differences between entanglement and the various incarnations of tree width.

On the Power of Imperfect Information

We present a polynomial-time reduction from parity games with imperfect information to safety games with imperfect information. Similar reductions for games with perfect information typically increase the game size exponentially. Our construction avoids such a blow-up by using imperfect information to realise succinct counters which cover a range exponentially larger than their size. In particular, the reduction shows that the problem of solving imperfect-information games with safety conditions is EXPTIME-complete.

Strategy construction for parity games with imperfect information

We consider two-player parity games with imperfect information in which strategies rely on observations that provide imperfect information about the history of a play. To solve such games, i.e., to determine the winning regions of players and corresponding winning strategies, one can use the subset construction to build an equivalent perfect-information game. Recently, an algorithm that avoids the inefficient subset construction has been proposed. The algorithm performs a fixed-point computation in a lattice of antichains, thus maintaining a succinct representation of state sets. However, this representation does not allow to recover winning strategies. In this paper, we build on the antichain approach to develop an algorithm for constructing the winning strategies in parity games of imperfect information. One major obstacle in adapting the classical procedure is that the complementation of attractor sets would break the invariant of downward-closedness on which the antichain representation relies. We overcome this difficulty by decomposing problem instances recursively into games with a combination of reachability, safety, and simpler parity conditions. We also report on an experimental implementation of our algorithm; to our knowledge, this is the first implementation of a procedure for solving imperfect-information parity games on graphs.

Entanglement and the complexity of directed graphs

Entanglement is a parameter for the complexity of finite directed graphs that measures to what extent the cycles of the graph are intertwined. It is defined by way of a game similar in spirit to the cops and robber games used to describe treewidth, directed treewidth, and hypertree width. Nevertheless, on many classes of graphs, there are significant differences between entanglement and the various incarnations of treewidth. Entanglement is intimately related with the computational and descriptive complexity of the modal @m-calculus. The number of fixed-point variables needed to describe a finite graph up to bisimulation is captured by its entanglement. This plays a crucial role in the proof that the variable hierarchy of the @m-calculus is strict. We study complexity issues for entanglement and compare it to other structural parameters of directed graphs. One of our main results is that parity games of bounded entanglement can be solved in polynomial time. Specifically, we establish that the complexity of solving a parity game can be parametrised in terms of the minimal entanglement of subgames induced by a winning strategy. Furthermore, we discuss the case of graphs of entanglement two. While graphs of entanglement zero and one are very simple, graphs of entanglement two allow arbitrary nesting of cycles, and they form a sufficiently rich class for modelling relevant classes of structured systems. We provide characterisations of this class, and propose decomposition notions similar to the ones for treewidth, DAG-width, and Kelly-width.

The Variable Hierarchy of the μ-Calculus Is Strict

Most of the logics commonly used in verification, such as LTL, CTL, CTL*, and PDL can be embedded into the two-variable fragment of the μ-calculus. It is also known that properties occurring at arbitrarily high levels of the alternation hierarchy can be formalised using only two variables. This raises the question of whether the number of fixed-point variables in μ-formulae can be bounded in general. We answer this question negatively and prove that the variable-hierarchy of the μ-calculus is semantically strict. For any k, we provide examples of formulae with k variables that are not equivalent to any formula with fewer variables. In particular, this implies that Parikhs Game Logic is less expressive than the μ-calculus, thus resolving an open issue raised by Parikh in~1983.

Once upon a Time in the West

We study determinacy, definability and complexity issues of path games on finite and infinite graphs.We study determinacy, definability and complexity issues of path games on finite and infinite graphs. Compared to the usual format of infinite games on graphs (such as Gale-Stewart games) we consider here a different variant where the players select in each move a path of arbitrary finite length, rather than just an edge. The outcome of a play is an infinite path, the winning condition hence is a set of infinite paths, possibly given by a formula from S1S, LTL, or first-order logic. Such games have a long tradition in descriptive set theory (in the form of Banach-Mazur games) and have recently been shown to have interesting application for planning in nondeterministic domains. It turns out that path games behave quite differently than classical graph games. For instance, path games with Muller conditions always admit positional winning strategies which are computable in polynomial time. With any logic on infinite paths (defining a winning condition) we can associate a logic on graphs, defining the winning regions of the associated path games. We explore the relationships between these logics. For instance, the winning regions of path games with an S1S-winning condition are definable in the modal mu-calculus. Further, if the winning condition is first-order (on paths), then the winning regions are definable in monadic path logic, or, for a large class of games, even in first-order logic. As a consequence, winning regions of LTL path games are definable in CTL*.

Admissibility in infinite games

We analyse the notion of iterated admissibility, i.e., avoidance of weakly dominated strategies, as a solution concept for extensive games of infinite horizon. This concept is known to provide a valuable criterion for selecting among multiple equilibria and to yield sharp predictions in finite games. However, generalisations to the infinite are inherently problematic, due to unbounded dominance chains and the requirement of transfinite induction. In a multi-player non-zero-sum setting, we show that for infinite extensive games of perfect information with only two possible payoffs (win or lose), the concept of iterated admissibility is sound and robust: all iteration stages are dominated by admissible strategies, the iteration is non-stagnating, and, under regular winning conditions, strategies that survive iterated elimination of dominated strategies form a regular set.

Information Tracking in Games on Graphs

When seeking to coordinate in a game with imperfect information, it is often relevant for a player to know what other players know. Keeping track of the information acquired in a play of infinite duration may, however, lead to infinite hierarchies of higher-order knowledge. We present a construction that makes explicit which higher-order knowledge is relevant in a game and allows us to describe a class of games that admit coordinated winning strategies with finite memory.

Fixed-Point Logics and Solitaire Games

Abstract The model-checking games associated with fixed-point logics are parity games, and it is currently not known whether the strategy problem for parity games can be solved in polynomial time. We study Solitaire-LFP, a fragment of least fixed-point logic, whose evaluation games are nested soltaire games. This means that on each strongly connected component of the game, only one player can make nontrivial moves. Winning sets of nested solitaire games can be computed efficiently. The model-checking problem for Solitaire-LFP is Pspace-complete in general and Ptime-complete for formulae of bounded width. On finite structures (but not on infinite ones), Solitaire-LFP is equivalent to transitive closure logic. We also consider the solitaire fragment of guarded fixed-point logics. Due to the restricted quantification pattern of these logics, the associated games are small and therefore admit more efficient model-checking algorithms.