Reflections on Finite Model Theory Phokion G. Kolaitis∗ IBM Almaden Research Center San Jose, CA 95120, USA
[email protected] Abstract model theory, to examine some of the obstacles that were encountered, and to discuss some open problems that have Advances in finite model theory have appeared in LICS stubbornly resisted solution. proceedings since the very beginning of the LICS Sympo- sium. The goal of this paper is to reflect on finite model 2 Early Beginnings theory by highlighting some of its successes, examining ob- stacles that were encountered, and discussing some open In the first half of the 20th Century, finite models were problems that have stubbornly resisted solution. used as a tool in the study of Hilbert’s Entscheidungsprob- lem, also known as the classical decision problem, which is the satisfiability problem for first-order logic: given a 1 Introduction first-order sentence, does it have a model? Indeed, even before this problem was shown to be undecidable by Turing During the past thirty years, finite model theory has devel- and Church, logicians had identified decidable fragments of oped from a collection of sporadic, but influential, early re- first-order logic, such as the Bernays-Schonfinkel¨ Class of sults to a mature research area characterized by technical all ∃∗∀∗ sentences and the Ackermann Class of all ∃∗∀∃∗ depth and mathematical sophistication. In this period, fi- sentences. The decidability of these two classes was estab- nite model theory has been explored not only for its con- lished by proving that the finite model property holds for nections to other areas of computer science (most notably, them: if a sentence in these classes has a model, then it has computational complexity and database theory), but also in a finite model (see [14, Chapter 6] for a modern exposition its own right as a distinct area of logic in computer science.