A Van Benthem/Rosen theorem for coalgebraic predicate logic

Abstract

Coalgebraic modal logic serves as a unifying framework to study a wide range of modal logics beyond the relational realm, including probabilistic and graded logics as well as conditional logics and logics based on neighbourhoods and games. Coalgebraic predicate logic (CPL), a generalization of a neighbourhood-based first-order logic introduced by Chang, has been identified as a natural first-order extension of coalgebraic modal logic, which in particular coincides with the standard first-order correspondence language when instantiated to Kripke-style relational modal operators. Here, we generalize to the CPL setting the classical van Benthem/Rosen theorem stating that both over arbitrary and over finite models, modal logic is precisely the bisimulation-invariant fragment of first-order logic. As instances of this generic result, we obtain corresponding characterizations for, e.g. conditional logic, neighbourhood logic (i.e. classical modal logic) and monotone modal logic.