Separation Logics and Modalities: A Survey

Stéphane Demri (1, 2, 3) , Morgan Deters (1)

1 NYU - New York University [New York]
2 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
3 LSV - Laboratoire Spécification et Vérification [Cachan]

Like modal logic, temporal logic, or description logic, separation logic has become a popular class of logical formalisms in computer science, conceived as assertion languages for Hoare-style proof systems with the goal to perform automatic program analysis. In a broad sense, separation logic is often understood as a programming language, an assertion language and a family of rules involving Hoare triples. In this survey, we present similarities between separation logic as an assertion language and modal and temporal logics. Moreover, we propose a selection of landmark results about decidability, complexity and expressive power.

Mots clés: separation logic; decidability; computational complexity; expressive power; temporal logic; modal logic; first-order logic; second-order logic; undecidability

Domaines: Informatique [cs]; Logique en informatique [cs.LO]

Stéphane Demri, Morgan Deters. Separation Logics and Modalities: A Survey. Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics, 2015, 25 (1), pp.50-99. ⟨10.1080/11663081.2015.1018801⟩. ⟨hal-03186076⟩