MCK: Model Checking the Logic of Knowledge

The specification formalism employed in model checking is usually some flavour of temporal or process algebraic language that expresses properties of the behavioural aspects of a system. Knowledge [5] is a modality that is orthogonal to the behavioural dimension, capturing properties of information flow. Logics of knowledge have been shown to be a useful framework for the analysis of distributed algorithms and security protocols, and model checking of these logics was first mooted by Halpern and Vardi [6]. Since that time theoretical aspects of model checking the logic of knowledge and its combinations with temporal logic have been studied [8–10]. The system MCK introduced in this paper implements parts of this theory.