The universal tangle for spatial reasoning

Abstract

The topological $\mu$-calculus has gathered attention in recent years as a powerful framework for representation of spatial knowledge. In particular, spatial relations can be represented over finite structures in the guise of weakly transitive wK4 frames. In this paper we show that the topological $\mu$-calculus is equivalent to a simple fragment based on a variant of the `tangle' operator. Similar results were proven for transitive frames by Dawar and Otto, using modal characterisation theorems for the corresponding classes of frames. However, since these theorems are not available in our setting, which has the upshot of providing a more explicit translation and upper bounds on formula size.