A Temporal Trace Language for the Formal Analysis of Dynamic Properties

Within many domains, among which biological and cognitive areas, multiple interacting processes occur with dynamics that are hard to handle. Current approaches to analyse the dynamics of such processes, often based on differential equations, are not always successful. As an alternative to differential equations, this paper presents the predicate logical Temporal Trace Language (TTL) for the formal specification and analysis of dynamic properties. This language supports the specification of both qualitative and quantitative aspects, and therefore subsumes specification languages based on differential equations. A special software environment has been developed for TTL, featuring both a Property Editor for building and editing TTL properties and a Checking Tool that enables the formal verification of properties against a set of traces. TTL has a number of advantages, among which a high expressivity and the possibility to define sublanguages for simulation and verification of entailment relations. TTL proved its value in a number of projects within different domains.

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