A First-Order Characterization of Allen’s Interval Algebra
نویسنده
چکیده
In this paper we are interested in the order structure induced by the relations ’before’ and ’meets’ of Allen’s interval algebra. We provide an abstract definition of this kind of order structure called an interval order. We prove that every interval order is isomorphic to the corresponding order on a set of finite intervals over a linear order without endpoints. As a consequence of this characterization we obtain that any partition of the set of relations on a set consisting of 13 relations that satisfy the composition table of Allen’s algebra is indeed an algebra of intervals.
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