---
title: "Initial Models and Serialisability in Abstract Dialectical Frameworks"
authors:
  - "Lars Bengel"
  - "Matthias Thimm"
doi: "10.24963/ijcai.2025/486"
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2025/486"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2025/0486.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 2025
pages: "4365-4373"
track: "Main Track"
keywords:
  - "Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: KRR: Computational complexity of reasoning"
  - "Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: KRR: Argumentation"
---

# Initial Models and Serialisability in Abstract Dialectical Frameworks

Lars Bengel, Matthias Thimm

*Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 4365-4373. DOI: [10.24963/ijcai.2025/486](https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2025/486)

## Abstract

We introduce initial models for abstract dialectical frameworks (ADFs) as a notion of minimal justifiable valuations and based on that, generalise the concept of serialisability of argumentation semantics to ADFs. In particular, we show that the characteristic operator-based semantics for ADFs can be characterised through serialisation sequences, which are, essentially, decompositions of a model into a series of initial models, representing a more fine-grained view into why a model is acceptable wrt. the semantics. We also analyse the computational complexity of tasks related to initial models.