Parameterized complexity of n-dense modal logics
For researchers in modal logic and parameterized complexity, it provides a tighter complexity classification for a class of logics whose exact complexity was previously unclear.
The paper refines the complexity bounds for n-dense modal logics from NEXPTIME to para-PSPACE by showing a poly-space algorithm when the modal depth is treated as a parameter.
Exact tight bounds of the complexity of the satisfiability problem for dense modal logics is a difficult question, likely somewhere between $\PSPACE$ and $\EXPSPACE$ depending of the logic under question. For a class of them, called here $n$-dense logics (characterized by axioms $\Box^n p\rightarrow \Box p$), we refine the known results -- membership in $\NEXPTIME$ -- in the light of parameterized complexity, as introduced in \cite{Downey}, and prove that they belong to the parameterized class para-$\PSPACE$: there exists a poly-space algorithm once the modal depth of the input is considered as a parameter. This is done by generalizing the novel analysis tool introduced in \cite{BalGasq25}, and therein called windows, to \emph{recursive windows}.