Building Decision Procedures in the Calculus of Inductive Constructions

It is commonly agreed that the success of future proof assistants will rely on their ability to incorporate computations within deduction in order to mimic the mathematician when replacing the proof of a proposition P by the proof of an equivalent proposition P' obtained from P thanks to possibly complex calculations. In this paper, we investigate a new version of the calculus of inductive constructions which incorporates arbitrary decision procedures into deduction via the conversion rule of the calculus. The novelty of the problem in the context of the calculus of inductive constructions lies in the fact that the computation mechanism varies along proof-checking: goals are sent to the decision procedure together with the set of user hypotheses available from the current context. Our main result shows that this extension of the calculus of constructions does not compromise its main properties: confluence, subject reduction, strong normalization and consistency are all preserved

The computability path ordering

This paper aims at carrying out termination proofs for simply typed higher-order calculi automatically by using ordering comparisons. To this end, we introduce the computability path ordering (CPO), a recursive relation on terms obtained by lifting a precedence on function symbols. A first version, core CPO, is essentially obtained from the higher-order recursive path ordering (HORPO) by eliminating type checks from some recursive calls and by incorporating the treatment of bound variables as in the com-putability closure. The well-foundedness proof shows that core CPO captures the essence of computability arguments \'a la Tait and Girard, therefore explaining its name. We further show that no further type check can be eliminated from its recursive calls without loosing well-foundedness, but for one for which we found no counterexample yet. Two extensions of core CPO are then introduced which allow one to consider: the first, higher-order inductive types; the second, a precedence in which some function symbols are smaller than application and abstraction

Church-Rosser Properties of Normal Rewriting

We prove a general purpose abstract Church-Rosser result that captures most existing such results that rely on termination of computations. This is achieved by studying abstract normal rewriting in a way that allows to incorporate positions at the abstract level. New concrete Church-Rosser results are obtained, in particular for higher-order rewriting at higher types

Termination of Dependently Typed Rewrite Rules

Our interest is in automated termination proofs of higher-order rewrite rules in presence of dependent types modulo a theory T on base types. We first describe an original transformation to a type discipline without type dependencies which preserves non-termination. Since the user must reason on expressions of the transformed language, we then introduce an extension of the computability path ordering CPO for comparing dependently typed expressions named DCPO. Using the previous result, we show that DCPO is a well-founded order, behaving well in practice

Normal Higher-Order Termination

International audienceWe extend the termination proof methods based on reduction orderings to higher-order rewriting systems based on higher-order pattern matching. We accommodate, on the one hand, a weakly polymorphic, algebraic extension of Church's simply typed λ-calculus, and on the other hand, any use of eta, as a reduction, as an expansion or as an equation. The user's rules may be of any type in this type system, either a base, functional, or weakly polymorphic type

Infinite families of finite string rewriting systems and their confluence

International audienceWe introduce parameterized rewrite systems for describing infinite families of finite string rewrite systems depending upon non-negative integer pa- rameters, as well as ways to reason uniformly over these families. Unlike previous work, the vocabulary on which a rewrite system in the family is built depends it- self on the integer parameters. Rewriting makes use of a toolkit for parameterized words which allows to describe a rewrite step made independently by all systems in an infinite family by a single, effective parameterized rewrite step. The main result is a confluence test for all systems in a family at once, based on a critical pair lemma classically based on computing finitely many overlaps between left- hand sides of parameterized rules and then checking for their joinability (which decidability is not garanteed)

Certification of SAT Solvers in Coq

International audienceWe describe a fully portable, open source certifier for traces of SAT problems produced by zChaff. It can also be easily adapted for MiniSat, PicoSat or BooleForce, and we have done it for PicoSat. Our certifier has been developed with the proof assistant Coq. We give some figures based on the pigeon hole, comparing both PicoSat and zChaff on the one hand, and our certifier with another certifier also developed with Coq

Confluence of Layered Rewrite Systems

We investigate a new, Turing-complete class of layered systems, whose linearized lefthand sides of rules can only be overlapped at the root position. Layered systems define a natural notion of rank for terms: the maximal number of redexes along a path from the root to a leaf. Overlappings are allowed in finite or infinite trees. Rules may be non-terminating, non-left-linear, or non-right- linear. Using a novel unification technique, cyclic unification, we show that rank non-increasing layered systems are confluent provided their cyclic critical pairs have cyclic-joinable decreasing diagrams