SGGS theorem proving: an exposition

We present in expository style the main ideas in SGGS, which stands for Semantically-Guided Goal-Sensitive theorem proving. SGGS uses sequences of constrained clauses to represent models, instance generation to go from a candidate model to the next, and resolution as well as other inferences to repair the model. SGGS is refutationally complete for first-order logic, model based, semantically guided, proof confluent, and goal sensitive, which appears to be a rare combination of features. In this paper we describe the core of SGGS in a narrative style, emphasizing ideas and trying to keep technicalities to a minimum, in order to advertise it to builders and users of theorem provers

Instance-Based Hyper-Tableaux for Coherent Logic

We consider a fragment of first-order logic known as coherent logic or geometric logic. The essential difference to standard clausal form is that there may be existentially quantified variables in the positive literals of a clause, and only constants and variables are allowed as terms. Coherent logic is interesting because many problems naturally fall into the fragment. Furthermore, the simple term structure might allow for efficient implementations. We propose a calculus for this fragment that extends the `next-generation' hyper-tableaux calculus of Baumgartner, and prove it sound and complete. To our knowledge, this is the first instance-based method that works on a richer input than clause normal form

05431 Abstracts Collection -- Deduction and Applications

From 23.10.05 to 28.10.05, the Dagstuhl Seminar 05431 ``Deduction and Applications\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

The hyper Tableaux calculus with equality and an application to finite model computation

In most theorem proving applications, a proper treatment of equational theories or equality is mandatory. In this article we show how to integrate a modern treatment of equality in the hyper tableau calculus. It is based on splitting of positive clauses and an adapted version of the superposition inference rule, where equations used for superposition are drawn (only) from a set of positive unit clauses, and superposition inferences into positive literals is restricted into (positive) unit clauses only. The calculus also features a generic, semantically justified simplification rule which covers many redundancy elimination techniques known from superposition theorem proving. Our main results are soundness and completeness of the calculus, but we also show how to apply the calculus for finite model computation, and we briefly describe the implementation

Deciding First-Order Satisfiability when Universal and Existential Variables are Separated

We introduce a new decidable fragment of first-order logic with equality, which strictly generalizes two already well-known ones -- the Bernays-Sch\"onfinkel-Ramsey (BSR) Fragment and the Monadic Fragment. The defining principle is the syntactic separation of universally quantified variables from existentially quantified ones at the level of atoms. Thus, our classification neither rests on restrictions on quantifier prefixes (as in the BSR case) nor on restrictions on the arity of predicate symbols (as in the monadic case). We demonstrate that the new fragment exhibits the finite model property and derive a non-elementary upper bound on the computing time required for deciding satisfiability in the new fragment. For the subfragment of prenex sentences with the quantifier prefix $\exists^* \forall^* \exists^*$ the satisfiability problem is shown to be complete for NEXPTIME. Finally, we discuss how automated reasoning procedures can take advantage of our results.Comment: Extended version of our LICS 2016 conference paper, 23 page

A relevance restriction strategy for automated deduction

Identifying relevant clauses before attempting a proof may lead to more efficient automated theorem proving. Relevance is here defined relative to a given set of clause