Temporal Logic - Temporal Operators

Temporal Operators

Temporal logic has two kinds of operators: logical operators and modal operators . Logical operators are usual truth-functional operators . The modal operators used in Linear Temporal Logic and Computation Tree Logic are defined as follows.

Textual Symbolic Definition Explanation Diagram
Binary operators
U Until: holds at the current or a future position, and has to hold until that position. At that position does not have to hold any more.
R Release: releases if is true until the first position in which is true (or forever if such a position does not exist).
Unary operators
N Next: has to hold at the next state. (X is used synonymously.)
F Future: eventually has to hold (somewhere on the subsequent path).
G Globally: has to hold on the entire subsequent path.
A All: has to hold on all paths starting from the current state.
E Exists: there exists at least one path starting from the current state where holds.

Alternate symbols:

  • operator R is sometimes denoted by V
  • The operator W is the weak until operator: is equivalent to

Unary operators are well-formed formulas whenever B is well-formed. Binary operators are well-formed formulas whenever B and C are well-formed.

In some logics, some operators cannot be expressed. For example, N operator cannot be expressed in Temporal Logic of Actions.

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