Model checking mobile ambients

We settle the complexity bounds of the model checking problem for the ambient calculus with public names against the ambient logic. We show that if either the calculus contains replication or the logic contains the guarantee operator, the problem is undecidable. In the case of the replication-free calculus and guarantee-free logic we prove that the problem is PSPACE-complete. For the complexity upper bound, we devise a new representation of processes that remains of polynomial size during process execution; this allows us to keep the model checking procedure in polynomial space. Moreover, we prove PSPACE-hardness of the problem for several quite simple fragments of the calculus and the logic; this suggests that there are no interesting fragments with polynomial-time model checking algorithms. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.