Subshifts, MSO Logic, and Collapsing Hierarchies
: Ilkka Törmä
: Josep Diaz, Ivan Lanese, Davide Sangiorgi
: IFIP international conference on theoretical computer science
: Berlin
: 2014
: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
: Theoretical Computer Science
: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
: 8705
: 1
: 111
: 122
: 0302-9743
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44602-7_10
: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-44602-7_10
We use monadic second-order logic to define two-dimensional subshifts, or sets of colorings of the infinite plane. We present a natural family of quantifier alternation hierarchies, and show that they all collapse to the third level. In particular, this solves an open problem of [Jeandel & Theyssier 2013]. The results are in stark contrast with picture languages, where such hierarchies are usually infinite.