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Concept
Dynamic logic (modal logic)
Summary
In logic, philosophy, and theoretical computer science, dynamic logic is an extension of modal logic capable of encoding properties of computer programs.
A simple example of a statement in dynamic logic is
which states that if the ground is currently dry and it rains, then afterwards the ground will be wet.
The syntax of dynamic logic contains a language of propositions (like "the ground is dry") and a language of actions (like "it rains"). The core modal constructs are , which states that after performing action a the proposition p should hold, and , which states that after performing action a it is possible that p holds.
The action language supports operations (doing one action followed by another), (doing one action or another), and iteration (doing one action zero or more times). The proposition language supports Boolean operations (and, or, and not). The action logic is expressive enough to encode programs. For an arbitrary program , precondition , and postcondition , the dynamic logic statement encodes the correctness of the program, making dynamic logic more general than Hoare logic.
Beyond its use in formal verification of programs, dynamic logic has been applied to describe complex behaviors arising in linguistics, philosophy, AI, and other fields.
Modal logic is characterized by the modal operators (box p) asserting that is necessarily the case, and (diamond p) asserting that is possibly the case. Dynamic logic extends this by associating to every action the modal operators and , thereby making it a multimodal logic. The meaning of is that after performing action it is necessarily the case that holds, that is, must bring about . The meaning of is that after performing it is possible that holds, that is, might bring about . These operators dual to each other, which means they are related by and , analogously to the relationship between the universal () and existential () quantifiers.
Dynamic logic permits compound actions built up from smaller actions.
Official source
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