Branching-time Model Checking of One-counter Processes

One-counter processes (OCPs) are pushdown processes which operate only on a unary stack alphabet. We study the computational complexity of model checking computation tree logic (CTL) over OCPs. A PSPACE upper bound is inherited from the modal µ-calculus for this problem. First, we analyze the periodic behaviour of CTL over OCPs and derive a model checking algorithm whose running time is exponential only in the number of control locations and a syntactic notion of the formula that we call leftward until depth. Thus, model checking fixed OCPs against CTL formulas with a fixed leftward until depth is in P. This generalizes a result of the first author, Mayr, and To for the expression complexity of CTL’s fragment EF. Second, we prove that already over some fixed OCP, CTL model checking is PSPACE-hard. Third, we show that there already exists a fixed CTL formula for which model checking of OCPs is PSPACE-hard. For the latter, we employ two results from complexity theory: (i) Convert...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: STACS
• Authors: Stefan Göller, Markus Lohrey
• Keywords: Ctl Formula, CTL Model Checking, Model Checking, STACS 2010, Theoretical Computer Science