A convex cone is homogeneous if its automorphism group acts transitively on the interior of the cone. Cones that are homogeneous and self-dual are called symmetric. Conic optimization problems over symmetric cones have been extensively studied, particularly in the literature on interior-point algorithms, and as the foundation of modelling tools for convex optimization. In this paper we consider the less well-studied conic optimization problems over cones that are homogeneous but not necessarily self-dual.

We start with cones of positive semidefinite symmetric matrices with a given sparsity pattern. Homogeneous cones in this class are characterized by nested block-arrow sparsity patterns, a subset of the chordal sparsity patterns. Chordal sparsity guarantees that positive define matrices in the cone have zero-fill Cholesky factorizations. The stronger properties that make the cone homogeneous guarantee that the inverse Cholesky factors have the same zero-fill pattern. We describe transitive subsets of the cone automorphism groups, and important properties of the composition of log-det barriers with the automorphisms.

Next, we consider extensions to linear slices of the positive semidefinite cone, and review conditions that make such cones homogeneous. An important example is the matrix norm cone, the epigraph of a quadratic-over-linear matrix function. The properties of homogeneous sparse matrix cones are shown to extend to this more general class of homogeneous matrix cones.

We then give an overview of the algebraic theory of homogeneous cones due to Vinberg and Rothaus. A fundamental consequence of this theory is that every homogeneous cone admits a spectrahedral (linear matrix inequality) representation.

We conclude by discussing the role of homogeneous structure in primal–dual symmetric interior-point methods, contrasting this with the well-developed algorithms for symmetric cones that exploit the strong properties of self-scaled barriers, and with symmetric primal–dual methods for general convex cones.

We present recent results on the model companions of set theory, placing them in the context of a current debate in the philosophy of mathematics. We start by describing the dependence of the notion of model companionship on the signature, and then we analyze this dependence in the specific case of set theory. We argue that the most natural model companions of set theory describe (as the signature in which we axiomatize set theory varies) theories of $H_{\kappa ^+}$, as $\kappa $ ranges among the infinite cardinals. We also single out $2^{\aleph _0}=\aleph _2$ as the unique solution of the continuum problem which can (and does) belong to some model companion of set theory (enriched with large cardinal axioms). While doing so we bring to light that set theory enriched by large cardinal axioms in the range of supercompactness has as its model companion (with respect to its first order axiomatization in certain natural signatures) the theory of $H_{\aleph _2}$ as given by a strong form of Woodin’s axiom $(*)$ (which holds assuming $\mathsf {MM}^{++}$). Finally this model-theoretic approach to set-theoretic validities is explained and justified in terms of a form of maximality inspired by Hilbert’s axiom of completeness.

We develop a method for showing that various modal logics that are valid in their countably generated canonical Kripke frames must also be valid in their uncountably generated ones. This is applied to many systems, including the logics of finite width, and a broader class of multimodal logics of ‘finite achronal width’ that are introduced here.

Sedlár and Vigiani [18] have developed an approach to propositional epistemic logics wherein (i) an agent’s beliefs are closed under relevant implication and (ii) the agent is located in a classical possible world (i.e., the non-modal fragment is classical). Here I construct first-order extensions of these logics using the non-Tarskian interpretation of the quantifiers introduced by Mares and Goldblatt [12], and later extended to quantified modal relevant logics by Ferenz [6]. Modular soundness and completeness are proved for constant domain semantics, using non-general frames with Mares–Goldblatt truth conditions. I further detail the relation between the demand that classical possible worlds have Tarskian truth conditions and incompleteness results in quantified relevant logics.

In this paper, I develop an algorithmic impossible-worlds model of belief and knowledge that provides a middle ground between models that entail that everyone is logically omniscient and those that are compatible with even the most egregious kinds of logical incompetence. In outline, the model entails that an agent believes (knows) $\phi $ just in case she can easily (and correctly) compute that $\phi $ is true and thus has the capacity to make her actions depend on whether $\phi $. The model thereby captures the standard view that belief and knowledge ground are constitutively connected to dispositions to act. As I explain, the model improves upon standard algorithmic models developed by Parikh, Halpern, Moses, Vardi, and Duc, among other ways, by integrating them into an impossible-worlds framework. The model also avoids some important disadvantages of recent candidate middle-ground models based on dynamic epistemic logic or step logic, and it can subsume their most important advantages.

There exist two notions of equivalence of behavior between states of a Labelled Markov Process (LMP): state bisimilarity and event bisimilarity. The first one can be considered as an appropriate generalization to continuous spaces of Larsen and Skou’s probabilistic bisimilarity, whereas the second one is characterized by a natural logic. C. Zhou expressed state bisimilarity as the greatest fixed point of an operator $\mathcal {O}$, and thus introduced an ordinal measure of the discrepancy between it and event bisimilarity. We call this ordinal the Zhou ordinal of $\mathbb {S}$, $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S})$. When $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S})=0$, $\mathbb {S}$ satisfies the Hennessy–Milner property. The second author proved the existence of an LMP $\mathbb {S}$ with $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S}) \geq 1$ and Zhou showed that there are LMPs having an infinite Zhou ordinal. In this paper we show that there are LMPs $\mathbb {S}$ over separable metrizable spaces having arbitrary large countable $\mathfrak {Z}(\mathbb {S})$ and that it is consistent with the axioms of $\mathit {ZFC}$ that there is such a process with an uncountable Zhou ordinal.

We formulate and explore two basic axiomatic systems of type-free subjective probability. One of them explicates a notion of finitely additive probability. The other explicates a concept of infinitely additive probability. It is argued that the first of these systems is a suitable background theory for formally investigating controversial principles about type-free subjective probability.

Scoring rules measure the deviation between a forecast, which assigns degrees of confidence to various events, and reality. Strictly proper scoring rules have the property that for any forecast, the mathematical expectation of the score of a forecast p by the lights of p is strictly better than the mathematical expectation of any other forecast q by the lights of p. Forecasts need not satisfy the axioms of the probability calculus, but Predd et al. [9] have shown that given a finite sample space and any strictly proper additive and continuous scoring rule, the score for any forecast that does not satisfy the axioms of probability is strictly dominated by the score for some probabilistically consistent forecast. Recently, this result has been extended to non-additive continuous scoring rules. In this paper, a condition weaker than continuity is given that suffices for the result, and the condition is proved to be optimal.

We systematically study several versions of the disjunction and the existence properties in modal arithmetic. First, we newly introduce three classes $\mathrm {B}$, $\Delta (\mathrm {B})$, and $\Sigma (\mathrm {B})$ of formulas of modal arithmetic and study basic properties of them. Then, we prove several implications between the properties. In particular, among other things, we prove that for any consistent recursively enumerable extension T of $\mathbf {PA}(\mathbf {K})$ with $T \nvdash \Box \bot $, the $\Sigma (\mathrm {B})$-disjunction property, the $\Sigma (\mathrm {B})$-existence property, and the $\mathrm {B}$-existence property are pairwise equivalent. Moreover, we introduce the notion of the $\Sigma (\mathrm {B})$-soundness of theories and prove that for any consistent recursively enumerable extension of $\mathbf {PA}(\mathbf {K4})$, the modal disjunction property is equivalent to the $\Sigma (\mathrm {B})$-soundness.

The aim of this paper is to provide a complete Natural Kind Semantics for an Essentialist Theory of Kinds. The theory is formulated in two-sorted first order monadic modal logic with identity. The natural kind semantics is based on Rudolf Willes Theory of Concept Lattices. The semantics is then used to explain several consequences of the theory, including results about the specificity (species–genus) relations between kinds, the definitions of kinds in terms of genera and specific differences and the existence of negative kinds. First, I show under which conditions the Hierarchy principle, which has been subjected to counterexamples in the literature, holds. I also show that a different principle about the species–genus relations between kinds, namely Kant’s Law, follows from the essentialist theory. Second, I introduce two new operations for kinds and show that they can be used to provide traditional definitions of kinds in terms of genera and specific differences. Finally, I show that these operations of specific difference induce, for each kind, a uniquely specified contrary kind and a uniquely specified subcontrary kind, which can be used as semantic values for non-classical predicate negations of kind terms.

Two of the most well-known belief contraction operators are partial meet contractions (PMCs) and kernel contractions (KCs). In this paper we propose two new classes of contraction operators, namely the class of generalized partial meet contractions (GPMC) and the class of generalized kernel contractions (GKC), which strictly contain the classes of PMCs and of KCs, respectively. We identify some extra conditions that can be added to the definitions of GPMCs and of GKCs, which give rise to some interesting subclasses of those classes of functions, namely the classes of extensional and of uniform GPMCs/GKCs. In the context of contractions on belief sets the classes of partial meet contractions, uniform GPMCs and extensional GPMCs are all identical. Nevertheless, when considered as operations on belief bases, the class of uniform GPMCs coincides with the class of partial meet contractions, but the extensional GPMCs constitute a new kind of belief base contraction functions whose characterizing postulate of irrelevance of syntax is extensionality—the same postulate of irrelevance of syntax which occurs in the classical axiomatic characterization of partial meet contractions for belief sets—rather than the postulate of uniformity—which is the irrelevance of syntax postulate used in the axiomatic characterization for partial meet contractions on belief bases. Analogous results are obtained regarding the classes of extensional and of uniform GKCs. We present the interrelations in the sense of inclusion among all the new classes of operators presented in this paper and several well known classes of PMCs and of KCs.