AGM-style belief revision of logic programs under answer set semantics

Abstract

In the past few years, several approaches for revision (and update) of logic programs have been studied. None of these however matched the generality and elegance of the original AGM approach to revision in classical logic. One particular obstacle is the underlying nonmonotonicity of the semantics of logic programs. Recently however, specific revision operators based on the monotonic concept of SE-models (which underlies the answer-set semantics of logic programs) have been proposed. Basing revision of logic programs on sets of SE-models has the drawback that arbitrary sets of SE-models may not necessarily be expressed via a logic program. This situation is similar to the emerging topic of revision in fragments of classical logic. In this paper we show how nonetheless classical AGM-style revision can be extended to various classes of logic programs using the concept of SE-models. That is, we rephrase the AGM postulates in terms of logic programs, provide a semantic construction for revision operators, and then in a representation result show that these approaches coincide. This work is interesting because, on the one hand it shows how the AGM approach can be extended to a seemingly nonmonotonic framework, while on the other hand the formal characterization may provide guiding principles for the development of specific revision operators. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.