The Logic Column for SIGACT News, the newsletter of the ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/riccardo/logic.html en The SIGACT News Logic Column announcements has been folded into my blog, Close Encounters of the Logical Kind, found at https://wiki.ccs.neu.edu/display/~riccardo/Close+Encounters+of+the+Logical+Kind. https://wiki.ccs.neu.edu/display/~riccardo/Close+Encounters+of+the+Logical+Kind Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:00:00 EDT https://wiki.ccs.neu.edu/display/~riccardo/Close+Encounters+of+the+Logical+Kind This article surveys some of the recent work in verification of temporal epistemic logic via symbolic model checking, focusing on OBDD-based and SAT-based approaches for epistemic logics built on discrete and real-time branching time temporal logics. http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.0446 Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.0446 This article discusses two books on the topic of alternative logics in science: "Deviant Logic", by Susan Haack, and "Alternative Logics: Do Sciences Need Them?", edited by Paul Weingartner. http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.1367 Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.1367 This article surveys recent advances in applying algebraic techniques to constraint satisfaction problems. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0611018 Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EDT http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0611018 This article responds to a critique of higher-order abstract syntax appearing in Logic Column 14, ``Nominal Logic and Abstract Syntax''. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0607141 Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EDT http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0607141 This article describes recent work on the topic of specifying properties of transition systems. By giving a suitably abstract description of transition systems as coalgebras, it is possible to derive logics for capturing properties of these transition systems in an elegant way. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0605128 Sun, 28 May 2006 00:00:00 EDT http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0605128 Formalizing syntactic proofs of properties of logics, programming languages, security protocols, and other formal systems is a significant challenge, in large part because of the obligation to handle name-binding correctly. We present an approach called nominal abstract syntax that has attracted considerable interest since its introduction approximately six years ago. After an overview of other approaches, we describe nominal abstract syntax and nominal logic, a logic for reasoning about nominal abstract syntax. We also discuss applications of nominal techniques to programming, automated reasoning, and identify some future directions. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0511025 Tue, 08 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0511025 This article is intended as an introduction to the subject of quantum logic, and as a brief survey of the relevant literature. Also discussed here are logics for specification and analysis of quantum information systems, in particular, recent work by P. Mateus and A. Sernadas, and also by R. van der Meyden and M. Patra. Overall, our objective is to provide a high-level presentation of the logical aspects of quantum theory. Mateus' and Sernadas' EQPL logic is illustrated with a small example, namely the state of an entangled pair of qubits. The "KT" logic of van der Meyden and Patra is demonstrated briefly in the context of the B92 protocol for quantum key distribution. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0508005 Fri, 05 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EDT http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.LO/0508005