The Fixpoint Bounded-Variable Queries are PSPACE-Complete

We study complexity of the evaluation of fixpoint bounded-variable queries in relational databases. We exhibit a finite database such that the problem whether a closed fixpoint formula using only 2 individual variables is satisfied in this database is PSPACE-complete. This clarifies the issues raised by Moshe Vardi in [Var95]. We study also the complexity of query evaluation for a number of restrictions of fixpoint logic. In particular we exhibit a sublogic for which the upper bound postulated by Vardi holds.

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