Multi-modal nonmonotonic logics of minimal knowledge

Abstract

In this paper we introduce multi-modal logics of minimal knowledge. Such a family of logics constitutes the first proposal in the field of epistemic nonmonotonic logic in which the three following aspects are simultaneously addressed: (i) the possibility of formalizing multiple agents through multiple modal operators; (ii) the possibility of using first-order quantification in the modal language; (iii) the possibility of formalizing nonmonotonic reasoning abilities for the agents modeled, based on the principle of minimal knowledge. We illustrate the expressive capabilities of multi-modal logics of minimal knowledge to provide a formal semantics to peer-to-peer data integration systems, which constitute one of the most recent and complex architectures for distributed information systems.