Formula size games for modal logic and μ-calculus
We propose a new version of formula size game for modal logic. The game characterizes the equivalence of pointed Kripke-models up to formulas of given numbers of modal operators and binary connectives. Our game is similar to the well-known Adler-Immerman game. However, due to a crucial difference in the definition of positions of the game, its winning condition is simpler, and the second player does not have a trivial optimal strategy. Thus, unlike the Adler-Immerman game, our game is a genuine two-person game. We illustrate the use of the game by proving a non-elementary succinctness gap between bisimulation invariant first-order logic FO and (basic) modal logic ML. We also present a version of the game for the modal μ-calculus L_μ and show that FO is also non-elementarily more succinct than L_μ.
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