Constructively formalizing automata theory

We present a constructive formalization of the Myhill-Nerode the-orem on the minimization of nite automata that follows the account in Hopcroft and Ullman's book Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata. We chose to formalize this theorem because it illustrates many points critical to formalization of computational mathematics, especially the extraction of an important algorithm from a proof as a method of knowing that the algorithm is correct. It also gave us an opportunity to experiment with a constructive implementation of quotient sets. We carried out the formalization in Nuprl, an interactive theorem prover based on constructive type theory. Nuprl borrows an imple-mentation of the ML language from the LCF system of Milner, Gordon, and Wadsworth, and makes heavy use of the notion of tactic pioneered by Milner in LCF. We are interested in the pedagogical value of electronic formal mathematical texts and have put our formalization on the World Wide Web. Readers are invited to judge whether the formalization adds value in comparison to a careful informal account. Key Words and Phrases: automata, constructivity, congruence, equivalence relation, formal languages, foundational logic, LCF, logic, Martin-Lof semantics, Myhill-Nerode theorem, Nuprl, program extrac

Formally Verified Compositional Algorithms for Factored Transition Systems

Artificial Intelligence (AI) planning and model checking are two disciplines that found wide practical applications. It is often the case that a problem in those two fields concerns a transition system whose behaviour can be encoded in a digraph that models the system's state space. However, due to the very large size of state spaces of realistic systems, they are compactly represented as propositionally factored transition systems. These representations have the advantage of being exponentially smaller than the state space of the represented system. Many problems in AI~planning and model checking involve questions about state spaces, which correspond to graph theoretic questions on digraphs modelling the state spaces. However, existing techniques to answer those graph theoretic questions effectively require, in the worst case, constructing the digraph that models the state space, by expanding the propositionally factored representation of the syste\ m. This is not practical, if not impossible, in many cases because of the state space size compared to the factored representation. One common approach that is used to avoid constructing the state space is the compositional approach, where only smaller abstractions of the system at hand are processed and the given problem (e.g. reachability) is solved for them. Then, a solution for the problem on the concrete system is derived from the solutions of the problem on the abstract systems. The motivation of this approach is that, in the worst case, one need only construct the state spaces of the abstractions which can be exponentially smaller than the state space of the concrete system. We study the application of the compositional approach to two fundamental problems on transition systems: upper-bounding the topological properties (e.g. the largest distance between any two states, i.e. the diameter) of the state spa\ ce, and computing reachability between states. We provide new compositional algorithms to solve both problems by exploiting different structures of the given system. In addition to the use of an existing abstraction (usually referred to as projection) based on removing state space variables, we develop two new abstractions for use within our compositional algorithms. One of the new abstractions is also based on state variables, while the other is based on assignments to state variables. We theoretically and experimentally show that our new compositional algorithms improve the state-of-the-art in solving both problems, upper-bounding state space topological parameters and reachability. We designed the algorithms as well as formally verified them with the aid of an interactive theorem prover. This is the first application that we are aware of, for such a theorem prover based methodology to the design of new algorithms in either AI~planning or model checking

A machine-checked constructive metatheory of computation tree logic

This thesis presents a machine-checked constructive metatheory of computation tree logic (CTL) and its sublogics K and K* based on results from the literature. We consider models, Hilbert systems, and history-based Gentzen systems and show that for every logic and every formula s the following statements are decidable and equivalent: s is true in all models, s is provable in the Hilbert system, and s is provable in the Gentzen system. We base our proofs on pruning systems constructing finite models for satisfiable formulas and abstract refutations for unsatisfiable formulas. The pruning systems are devised such that abstract refutations can be translated to derivations in the Hilbert system and the Gentzen system, thus establishing completeness of both systems with a single model construction. All results of this thesis are formalized and machine-checked with the Coq interactive theorem prover. Given the level of detail involved and the informal presentation in much of the original work, the gap between the original paper proofs and constructive machine-checkable proofs is considerable. The mathematical proofs presented in this thesis provide for elegant formalizations and often differ significantly from the proofs in the literature.Diese Dissertation beschreibt eine maschinell verifizierte konstruktive Metatheorie von computation tree logic (CTL) und deren Teillogiken K und K*. Wir betrachten Modelle, Hilbert-Kalküle und History-basierte Gentzen-Kalküle und zeigen, für jede betrachtete Logik und jede Formel s, Entscheidbarkeit und Äquivalenz der folgenden Aussagen: s gilt in allen Modellen, s ist im Hilbert-Kalkül ableitbar und s ist im Gentzen-Kalkül ableitbar. Die Beweise bauen auf Pruningsystemen auf, welche für erfüllbare Formeln endliche Modelle und für unerfüllbare Formeln abstrakte Widerlegungen konstruieren. Die Pruningsysteme sind so konstruiert, dass abstrakte Widerlegungen zu Widerlegungen sowohl im Hilbert- als auch im Gentzen-Kalkül übersetzt werden können. Dadurch wird es möglich, die Vollständigkeit beider Systeme mit nur einer Modellkonstruktion zu zeigen. Alle Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation sind formalisiert und maschinell verifiziert mit Hilfe des Beweisassistenten Coq. In Anbetracht der Fülle an Details und der informellen Beweisführung in großen Teilen der Originalliteratur, erfordert dies teilweise tiefgreifende Veränderungen an den Beweisen aus der Literatur. Die Beweise in der vorliegenden Arbeit sind so aufgebaut, dass sie zu eleganten Formalisierungen führen

A machine-checked constructive metatheory of computation tree logic

This thesis presents a machine-checked constructive metatheory of computation tree logic (CTL) and its sublogics K and K* based on results from the literature. We consider models, Hilbert systems, and history-based Gentzen systems and show that for every logic and every formula s the following statements are decidable and equivalent: s is true in all models, s is provable in the Hilbert system, and s is provable in the Gentzen system. We base our proofs on pruning systems constructing finite models for satisfiable formulas and abstract refutations for unsatisfiable formulas. The pruning systems are devised such that abstract refutations can be translated to derivations in the Hilbert system and the Gentzen system, thus establishing completeness of both systems with a single model construction. All results of this thesis are formalized and machine-checked with the Coq interactive theorem prover. Given the level of detail involved and the informal presentation in much of the original work, the gap between the original paper proofs and constructive machine-checkable proofs is considerable. The mathematical proofs presented in this thesis provide for elegant formalizations and often differ significantly from the proofs in the literature.Diese Dissertation beschreibt eine maschinell verifizierte konstruktive Metatheorie von computation tree logic (CTL) und deren Teillogiken K und K*. Wir betrachten Modelle, Hilbert-Kalküle und History-basierte Gentzen-Kalküle und zeigen, für jede betrachtete Logik und jede Formel s, Entscheidbarkeit und Äquivalenz der folgenden Aussagen: s gilt in allen Modellen, s ist im Hilbert-Kalkül ableitbar und s ist im Gentzen-Kalkül ableitbar. Die Beweise bauen auf Pruningsystemen auf, welche für erfüllbare Formeln endliche Modelle und für unerfüllbare Formeln abstrakte Widerlegungen konstruieren. Die Pruningsysteme sind so konstruiert, dass abstrakte Widerlegungen zu Widerlegungen sowohl im Hilbert- als auch im Gentzen-Kalkül übersetzt werden können. Dadurch wird es möglich, die Vollständigkeit beider Systeme mit nur einer Modellkonstruktion zu zeigen. Alle Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation sind formalisiert und maschinell verifiziert mit Hilfe des Beweisassistenten Coq. In Anbetracht der Fülle an Details und der informellen Beweisführung in großen Teilen der Originalliteratur, erfordert dies teilweise tiefgreifende Veränderungen an den Beweisen aus der Literatur. Die Beweise in der vorliegenden Arbeit sind so aufgebaut, dass sie zu eleganten Formalisierungen führen

Constructively Formalizing Automata Theory

We present a constructive formalization of the Myhill-Nerode theorem on the minimization of finite automata that follows the account in Hopcroft and Ullman's book Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata. We chose to formalize this theorem because it illustrates many points critical to formalization of computational mathematics, especially the extraction of an important algorithm from a proof as a method of knowing that the algorithm is correct. It also gave us an opportunity to experiment with a constructive implementation of quotient sets. We carried out the formalization in Nuprl, an interactive theorem prover based on constructive type theory. Nuprl borrows an implementation of the ML language from the LCF system of Milner, Gordon, and Wadsworth, and makes heavy use of the notion of tactic pioneered by Milner in LCF. We are interested in the pedagogical value of electronic formal mathematical texts and have put our formalization on the World Wide Web. Readers are invited to ..