Aims and scope

Acta Informatica is publishing original papers in all areas covering the mathematical foundations of Computer Science.
We solicit both research papers, survey articles and shorter contributions (notes).

Topics include theoretical aspects of the following items [notice that you will get a refined list when clicking on these items].

    Algorithms and their analysis
    Automata and formal languages
    Computability and complexity
    Data handling
    Discrete Mathematics
    Logic (in Computer Science)
    Mathematical foundations of Artificial Intelligence
    Programming language theory
    Security
    Systems theory
    Verification

This includes also modern topics like Quantum Computing.

Special Issue on Selected Extended Papers of the 2024 Annual Conference on Theory and Applications of Models of Computation (TAMC 2024) in Acta Informatica
Submission Date: 2024-07-31

This special issue is dedicated to selected papers published in the 2024 Annual Conference on Theory and Applications of Models of Computation (TAMC 2024) that will be held in Hong Kong, China, May 13-15, 2024. The conference aims at bringing together a wide range of researchers with interests in computational theory and its applications. Topics of interest to this special issue include, but are not limited to, automata theory, formal languages, formal verification, program analysis, and logic.

Special Issue on Selected Extended Papers from Machine Computation and Universality 2024
Submission Date: 2024-10-01

This issue will be composed of extended selected communications presented at Machine Computation and Universality 2024. Submission is by invitation only. The scope of the conference topics includes, but is not limited to, computation in the setting of various discrete models (Turing machines, register machines, cellular automata, tile assembly systems, rewriting systems, molecular computing models, neural models...), analog and hybrid models (BSS machines, infinite time cellular automata, real machines, quantum computing...) and the meaning and implantation of universality in these contexts. Particular emphasis is given towards search for frontiers between decidability and undecidability in the various models, search for the simplest universal models, computational complexity of predicting the evolution of computations in the various models. Parallel computing models and their connections to decidability, complexity and universality.

Special Issue on Selected Extended Papers of SMT 2024 and Related Papers
Submission Date: 2024-10-01

The aim of this collection is to collect, in a single volume, current state of the art research in Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT). The collection is intended to include extended versions of papers that appeared in the 2024 SMT workshop, as well as additional contributions in the area of SMT.

Determining the satisfiability of first-order formulas modulo background theories, known as the Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) problem, has proved to be an enabling technology for verification, synthesis, test generation, compiler optimization, scheduling, and other areas. The success of SMT techniques depends on the development of both domain-specific decision procedures for each background theory (e.g., linear arithmetic, the theory of arrays, or the theory of bit-vectors) and combination methods that allow one to obtain more versatile SMT tools, usually leveraging Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers. These ingredients together make SMT techniques well-suited for use in larger automated reasoning and verification efforts.

Special Issue on Hyperproperties: Foundations and Applications
Submission Date: 2024-11-03

Aims, Scope and Objective of Topical Collection:

The study of hyperproperties has recently gained much attention in the formal methods, security, and cyber-physical systems communities. Hyperproperties generalize the conventional notion of specifications, defining properties of individual executions of a system, to relations between multiple executions. The added expressive power had enabled hyperproperties to become a widely-used formalism for expressing system properties such as information-flow policies, symmetry in hardware design, robustness in cyber-physical systems, as well as properties of learning-enabled systems, including monotonicity, fairness, and robustness of neural networks.

The objective of this special issue is to highlight recent advances in the broad area of hyperproperties. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: specification formalisms for hyperproperties - methods and tools for verifying, synthesizing, and monitoring hyperproperties - applications of hyperproperties as a formalism for robustness, causality, fairness, or privacy properties.

Acta Informatica scope:

Hyperproperties specify desired properties of a system and refer to a class of properties that relate multiple system executions (vs. what we call trace properties), expressing a wide range of properties from information flow and security policies to complex epistemic properties. Since their introduction in 2008, hyperproperties have been extensively studied within multiple areas of theoretical computer science. On the fundamental side, logics for expressing hyperproperties are constantly being developed, together with a study of their expressiveness and complexity of different problems for these logics (such as model checking, synthesis, and satisfiability). On the algorithmic and applications aspect, hyperproperties are studied in terms of algorithms for verifying systems w.r.t. hyperproperties and finding applications of hyperproperties in security, cyber-physical systems, distributed systems, and more.