The Logic of Data Access and Data Exchanges

We investigate a new logic that extends Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL), by combining standard epistemic modalities K a ϕ and K A ϕ for (individual and distributed) propositional knowledge with operators K ϕ a x, K ϕ A x denoting (conditional) non-propositional knowledge of a number (in which an agent a or a group A have knowledge of the value of some variable x, if given additional information ϕ).We also generalize these operators, by considering formulas |x| ϕ A ≤ N (for any natural number N), saying that: conditional on ϕ, A can narrow down the possible values of variable x to at most N possibilities.In order to name and compare such hypothetical values, we extend the logic further with definite descriptions based on minimization operators: µ N x ϕ A denotes the least of the N possible values of x (according to some fixed order ≤) that are considered possible by group A (given condition ϕ).On this static base, we consider DEL-style extensions with dynamic modalities for general 'dataexchange events' (covering private and public propositional announcements, but also secret hacking of a private database, or public sharing of one's data via open-source repositories, etc).In such scenarios, whole 'chunks' of information may be exchanged or modified: once access to a given source is gained, all the 'data' stored at that specific location becomes available.We give complete axiomatizations for the resulting logics, and prove their decidability and co-expressivity.

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Publication Details

Journal
Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
Published
2026-06-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4204/eptcs.447.6
Primary Topic
Research Data Management Practices
Type
article
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article

The Logic of Data Access and Data Exchanges

Alexandru Baltag, Sonja Smets
Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
Research Data Management Practices
article

The Logic of Data Access and Data Exchanges

Alexandru Baltag, Sonja Smets
article en

Abstract

We investigate a new logic that extends Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL), by combining standard epistemic modalities K a ϕ and K A ϕ for (individual and distributed) propositional knowledge with operators K ϕ a x, K ϕ A x denoting (conditional) non-propositional knowledge of a number (in which an agent a or a group A have knowledge of the value of some variable x, if given additional information ϕ).We also generalize these operators, by considering formulas |x| ϕ A ≤ N (for any natural number N), saying that: conditional on ϕ, A can narrow down the possible values of variable x to at most N possibilities.In order to name and compare such hypothetical values, we extend the logic further with definite descriptions based on minimization operators: µ N x ϕ A denotes the least of the N possible values of x (according to some fixed order ≤) that are considered possible by group A (given condition ϕ).On this static base, we consider DEL-style extensions with dynamic modalities for general 'dataexchange events' (covering private and public propositional announcements, but also secret hacking of a private database, or public sharing of one's data via open-source repositories, etc).In such scenarios, whole 'chunks' of information may be exchanged or modified: once access to a given source is gained, all the 'data' stored at that specific location becomes available.We give complete axiomatizations for the resulting logics, and prove their decidability and co-expressivity.

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer ScienceVol. 447
University of Amsterdam (NL)
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Research Data Management Practices
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