Graph structure and monadic second-order logic
Subtitle: a language-theoretic approach
By: Bruno Courcelle, Joost Engelfriet
Contributors: Engelfriet, Joost
Series: Encyclopedia of mathematics and its applications -- 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 728
ISBN-13: 9780521898331
Subjects: MATHEMATICS / Logic; Graphic methods; Symbolic and mathematical Logic
Description: "The study of graph structure has advanced in recent years with great strides: finite graphs can be described algebraically, enabling them to be constructed out of more basic elements. Separately the properties of graphs can be studied in a logical language called monadic second-order logic. In this book, these two features of graph structure are brought together for the first time in a presentation that unifies and synthesizes research over the last 25 years. The author not only provides a thorough description of the theory, but also details its applications, on the one hand to the construction of graph algorithms, and, on the other to the extension of formal language theory to finite graphs. Consequently the book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in graph theory, finite model theory, formal language theory, and complexity theory"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Foreword Maurice Nivat; Introduction; 1. Overview; 2. Graph algebras and widths of graphs; 3. Equational and recognizable sets in many-sorted algebras; 4. Equational and recognizable sets of graphs; 5. Monadic second-order logic; 6. Algorithmic applications; 7. Monadic second-order transductions; 8. Transductions of terms and words J. Engelfriet; 9. Relational structures; 10. Conclusion and open problems; References; Index.