We give an efficient procedure for verifying that a finite-state concurrent system meets a specification expressed in a (propositional, branching-time) temporal logic. Our algorithm has complexity linear in both the size of the specification and the size of the global state graph for the concurrent system. We also show how this approach can be adapted to handle fairness. We argue that our technique can provide a practical alternative to manual proof construction or use of a mechanical theorem prover for verifying many finite-state concurrent systems. Experimental results show that state machines with several hundred states can be checked in a matter of seconds.

The complexity of satisfiability and determination of truth in a particular finite structure are considered for different propositional linear temporal logics. It is shown that these problems are NPcomplete for the logic with F and are PSPACE-complete for the logics with F, X, with U, with U, S, X operators and for the extended logic with regular operators given by Wolper.

Methods are given for automatically verifying temporal properties of concurrent systems containing an arbitrary number of finite-state processes that communicate using CCS actions. TWo models of systems are considered. Systems in the first model consist of a unique control process and an arbitrary number of user processes with identical definitions. For this model, a decision procedure to check whether all the executions of a process satisfy a given specification is presented. This algorithm runs in time double exponential in the sizes of the control and the user process definitions. It is also proven that it is decidable whether all the fair executions of a process satisfy a given specification. The second model is a special case of the first. In this model, all the processes have identical definitions. For this model, an efficient decision procedure is presented that checks if every execution of a process satisfies a given temporal logic specification. This algorithm runs in time polynomial in the size of the process definition. It is shown how to verify certain global properties such as mutual exclusion and absence of deadlocks. Finally, it is shown how these decision procedures can be used to reason about certain systems with a communication network.

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We consider the complexity of satisfiability and determination of truth in a particular finite structure for different propositional linear temporal logics.We show that both the above problems are NP-complete for the logic with F operator and are PSPACE-complete for the logics with F,X, with U, with U,S,X, and Wolper's extended logic with regular operators [WoSl].