Deciding the Word Problem for Ground Identities with Commutative and Extensional Symbols

The word problem for a finite set of ground identities is known to be decidable in polynomial time using congruence closure, and this is also the case if some of the function symbols are assumed to be commutative. We show that decidability in P is preserved if we add the assumption that certain function symbols f are extensional in the sense that f(s1,…,sn) ≈ f(t1,…,tn) implies s1 ≈ t1,…,sn ≈ tn. In addition, we investigate a variant of extensionality that is more appropriate for commutative function symbols, but which raises the complexity of the word problem to coNP

Set Unification

The unification problem in algebras capable of describing sets has been tackled, directly or indirectly, by many researchers and it finds important applications in various research areas--e.g., deductive databases, theorem proving, static analysis, rapid software prototyping. The various solutions proposed are spread across a large literature. In this paper we provide a uniform presentation of unification of sets, formalizing it at the level of set theory. We address the problem of deciding existence of solutions at an abstract level. This provides also the ability to classify different types of set unification problems. Unification algorithms are uniformly proposed to solve the unification problem in each of such classes. The algorithms presented are partly drawn from the literature--and properly revisited and analyzed--and partly novel proposals. In particular, we present a new goal-driven algorithm for general ACI1 unification and a new simpler algorithm for general (Ab)(Cl) unification.Comment: 58 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP

Proceedings of Sixth International Workshop on Unification

Swiss National Science Foundation; Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 314); Christ Church, Oxford; Oxford University Computing Laborator

Renforcement du noyau d un démonstrateur SMT (Conception et implantation de procédures de décisions efficaces)

Cette thèse s'intéresse à la démonstration automatique de la validité de formules mathématiques issues de la preuve de programmes. Elle se focalise tout particulièrement sur la Satisfiabilité Modulo Théories (SMT): un jeune domaine de recherche qui a connu de grands progrès durant la dernière décennie. Les démonstrateurs de cette famille ont des applications diverses dans la conception de microprocesseurs, la preuve de programmes, le model-checking, etc.Les démonstrateurs SMT offrent un bon compromis entre l'expressivité et l'efficacité. Ils reposent sur une coopération étroite d'un solveur SAT avec une combinaison de procédures de décision pour des théories spécifiques comme la théorie de l'égalité libre avec des symboles non interprétés, l'arithmétique linéaire sur les entiers et les rationnels, et la théorie des tableaux.L'objectif de cette thèse est d'améliorer l'efficacité et l'expressivité du démonstrateur SMT Alt-Ergo. Pour cela, nous proposons une nouvelle procédure de décision pour la théorie de l'arithmétique linéaire sur les entiers. Cette procédure est inspirée par la méthode de Fourier-Motzkin, mais elle utilise un simplexe sur les rationnels pour effectuer les calculs en pratique. Nous proposons également un nouveau mécanisme de combinaison, capable de raisonner dans l'union de la théorie de l'égalité libre, la théorie AC des symboles associatifs et commutatifs et une théorie arbitraire deShostak. Ce mécanisme est une extension modulaire et non intrusive de la procédure de completion close modulo AC avec la théorie de Shostak. Aussi, nous avons étendu Alt-Ergo avec des procédures de décision existantes pour y intégrer d'autres théories intéressantes comme la théorie de types de données énumérés et la théorie des tableaux. Enfin, nous avons exploré des techniques de simplification de formules en amont et l'amélioration de son solveur SAT.This thesis tackles the problem of automatically proving the validity of mathematical formulas generated by program verification tools. In particular, it focuses on Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT): a young research topic that has seen great advances during the last decade. The solvers of this family have various applications in hardware design, program verification, model checking, etc.SMT solvers offer a good compromise between expressiveness and efficiency. They rely on a tight cooperation between a SAT solver and a combination of decision procedures for specific theories, such as the free theory of equality with uninterpreted symbols, linear arithmetic over integers and rationals, or the theory of arrays.This thesis aims at improving the efficiency and the expressiveness of the Alt-Ergo SMT solver. For that, we designed a new decision procedure for the theory of linear integer arithmetic. This procedure is inspired by Fourier-Motzkin's method, but it uses a rational simplex to perform computations in practice. We have also designed a new combination framework, capable of reasoning in the union of the free theory of equality, the AC theory of associative and commutativesymbols, and an arbitrary signature-disjoint Shostak theory. This framework is a modular and non-intrusive extension of the ground AC completion procedure with the given Shostak theory. In addition, we have extended Alt-Ergo with existing decision procedures to integrate additional interesting theories, such as the theory of enumerated data types and the theory of arrays. Finally, we have explored preprocessing techniques for formulas simplification as well as the enhancement of Alt-Ergo's SAT solver.PARIS11-SCD-Bib. électronique (914719901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Equational logic and rewriting

International audienceIn this survey, we do not address higher order logics nor type theory, but rather restrict to first-order concepts. We focus on equational logic and its relation to rewriting logic and we consider their impact on automated deduction and programming languages

Pseudo-contractions as Gentle Repairs

Updating a knowledge base to remove an unwanted consequence is a challenging task. Some of the original sentences must be either deleted or weakened in such a way that the sentence to be removed is no longer entailed by the resulting set. On the other hand, it is desirable that the existing knowledge be preserved as much as possible, minimising the loss of information. Several approaches to this problem can be found in the literature. In particular, when the knowledge is represented by an ontology, two different families of frameworks have been developed in the literature in the past decades with numerous ideas in common but with little interaction between the communities: applications of AGM-like Belief Change and justification-based Ontology Repair. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between pseudo-contraction operations and gentle repairs. Both aim to avoid the complete deletion of sentences when replacing them with weaker versions is enough to prevent the entailment of the unwanted formula. We show the correspondence between concepts on both sides and investigate under which conditions they are equivalent. Furthermore, we propose a unified notation for the two approaches, which might contribute to the integration of the two areas