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arXiv · 2509.24583

The Complexity of Defining and Separating Fixpoint Formulae in Modal Logic

Jean Christoph Jung·Jędrzej Kołodziejski
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Abstract

Modal separability for modal fixpoint formulae is the problem to decide for two given modal fixpoint formulae $φ,φ'$ whether there is a modal formula $ψ$ that separates them, in the sense that $φ\modelsψ$ and $ψ\models\negφ'$. We study modal separability and its special case modal definability over various classes of models, such as arbitrary models, finite models, trees, and models of bounded outdegree. Our main results are that modal separability is PSpace-complete over words, that is, models of outdegree $\leq 1$, ExpTime-complete over unrestricted and over binary models, and TwoExpTime-complete over models of outdegree bounded by some $d\geq 3$. Interestingly, this latter case behaves fundamentally different from the other cases also in that modal logic does not enjoy the Craig interpolation property over this class. Motivated by this we study also the induced interpolant existence problem as a special case of modal separability, and show that it is coNExpTime-complete and thus harder than validity in the logic. Besides deciding separability, we also provide algorithms for the effective construction of separators. Finally, we consider in a case study the extension of modal fixpoint formulae by graded modalities and investigate separability by modal formulae and graded modal formulae.

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Jean Christoph Jung, Jędrzej Kołodziejski. 2026-08-11. The Complexity of Defining and Separating Fixpoint Formulae in Modal Logic. https://doi.org/10.46298/lmcs-22(3%3A6)2026

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