On the effect of default negation on the expressiveness of disjunctive rules

Abstract

In this paper, the expressive power of disjunctive rules involving default negation is analyzed within a framework based on polynomial, faithful and modular (PFM) translations. The analysis is restricted to the stable semantics of disjunctive logic programs. A particular interest is understanding what is the effect if default negation is allowed in the heads of disjunctive rules. It is established in the paper that occurrences of default negation can be removed from the heads of rules using a PFM translation when default negation is allowed in the bodies of rules. In this case, we may conclude that default negation appearing in the heads of rules does not affect expressive power of rules. However, in the case that default negation may not be used in the bodies of rules, such a PFM translation is no longer possible. Moreover, there is no PFM translation for removing default negation from the bodies of rules. Consequently, disjunctive logic programs with default negation in the bodies of rules are strictly more expressive than those without. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001.