Two-Variable First-Order Logic with Equivalence Closure

Abstract

We consider the satisfiability and finite satisfiability problems for extensions of the two-variable fragment of first-order logic in which an equivalence closure operator can be applied to a fixed number of binary predicates. We show that the satisfiability problem for two-variable, first-order logic with equivalence closure applied to two binary predicates is in 2NEXPTIME, and we obtain a matching lower bound by showing that the satisfiability problem for two-variable first-order logic in the presence of two equivalence relations is 2NEXPTIME-hard. The logics in question lack the finite model property; however, we show that the same complexity bounds hold for the corresponding finite satisfiability problems. We further show that the satisfiability (=finite satisfiability) problem for the two-variable fragment of first-order logic with equivalence closure applied to a single binary predicate is NEXPTIME-complete.