On Loop Formulas with Variables

Recently Ferraris, Lee and Lifschitz proposed a new definition of stable models that does not refer to grounding, which applies to the syntax of arbitrary first-order sentences. We show its relation to the idea of loop formulas with variables by Chen, Lin, Wang and Zhang, and generalize their loop formulas to disjunctive programs and to arbitrary first-order sentences. We also extend the syntax of logic programs to allow explicit quantifiers, and define its semantics as a subclass of the new language of stable models by Ferraris et al. Such programs inherit from the general language the ability to handle nonmonotonic reasoning under the stable model semantics even in the absence of the unique name and the domain closure assumptions, while yielding more succinct loop formulas than the general language due to the restricted syntax. We also show certain syntactic conditions under which query answering for an extended program can be reduced to entailment checking in first-order logic, providing a way to apply first-order theorem provers to reasoning about non-Herbrand stable models.Comment: 10 pages. In Proc. Eleventh International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2008), pages 444-453. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1401.389

CMODELS – SAT-based Disjunctive Answer Set Solver

Disjunctive logic programming under the stable model semantics [GL91] is a new methodology called answer set programming (ASP) for solving combinatorial search problems. This programming method uses answer set solvers, such as DLV [Lea05], GNT [Jea05], SMODELS [SS05], ASSAT [LZ02], CMODELS [Lie05a]. Systems DLV and GNT are more general as they work with the class of disjunctive logic programs, while other systems cover only normal programs. DLV is uniquely designed to find the answer sets for disjunctive logic programs. On the other hand, GNT first generates possible stable model candidates and then tests the candidate on the minimality using system SMODELS as an inference engine for both tasks. Systems CMODELS and ASSAT use SAT solvers as search engines. They are based on the relationship between the completion semantics [Cla78], loop formulas [LZ02] and answer set semantics for logic programs. Here we present the implementation of a SAT-based algorithm for finding answer sets for disjunctive logic programs within CMODELS. The work is based on the definition of completion for disjunctive programs [LL03] and the generalisation of loop formulas [LZ02] to the case of disjunctive programs [LL03].We propose the necessary modifications to the SAT based ASSAT algorithm [LZ02] as well as to the generate and test algorithmfrom [GLM04] in order to adapt them to the case of disjunctive programs. We implement the algorithms in CMODELS and demonstrate the experimental results

Knowledge Compilation of Logic Programs Using Approximation Fixpoint Theory

To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP), Proceedings of ICLP 2015 Recent advances in knowledge compilation introduced techniques to compile \emph{positive} logic programs into propositional logic, essentially exploiting the constructive nature of the least fixpoint computation. This approach has several advantages over existing approaches: it maintains logical equivalence, does not require (expensive) loop-breaking preprocessing or the introduction of auxiliary variables, and significantly outperforms existing algorithms. Unfortunately, this technique is limited to \emph{negation-free} programs. In this paper, we show how to extend it to general logic programs under the well-founded semantics. We develop our work in approximation fixpoint theory, an algebraical framework that unifies semantics of different logics. As such, our algebraical results are also applicable to autoepistemic logic, default logic and abstract dialectical frameworks

Propositional computability logic I

In the same sense as classical logic is a formal theory of truth, the recently initiated approach called computability logic is a formal theory of computability. It understands (interactive) computational problems as games played by a machine against the environment, their computability as existence of a machine that always wins the game, logical operators as operations on computational problems, and validity of a logical formula as being a scheme of "always computable" problems. The present contribution gives a detailed exposition of a soundness and completeness proof for an axiomatization of one of the most basic fragments of computability logic. The logical vocabulary of this fragment contains operators for the so called parallel and choice operations, and its atoms represent elementary problems, i.e. predicates in the standard sense. This article is self-contained as it explains all relevant concepts. While not technically necessary, however, familiarity with the foundational paper "Introduction to computability logic" [Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 123 (2003), pp.1-99] would greatly help the reader in understanding the philosophy, underlying motivations, potential and utility of computability logic, -- the context that determines the value of the present results. Online introduction to the subject is available at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~giorgi/cl.html and http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~japaridz/CL/gsoll.html .Comment: To appear in ACM Transactions on Computational Logi

Recycling Computed Answers in Rewrite Systems for Abduction

In rule-based systems, goal-oriented computations correspond naturally to the possible ways that an observation may be explained. In some applications, we need to compute explanations for a series of observations with the same domain. The question whether previously computed answers can be recycled arises. A yes answer could result in substantial savings of repeated computations. For systems based on classic logic, the answer is YES. For nonmonotonic systems however, one tends to believe that the answer should be NO, since recycling is a form of adding information. In this paper, we show that computed answers can always be recycled, in a nontrivial way, for the class of rewrite procedures that we proposed earlier for logic programs with negation. We present some experimental results on an encoding of the logistics domain.Comment: 20 pages. Full version of our IJCAI-03 pape

From truth to computability I

The recently initiated approach called computability logic is a formal theory of interactive computation. See a comprehensive online source on the subject at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~giorgi/cl.html . The present paper contains a soundness and completeness proof for the deductive system CL3 which axiomatizes the most basic first-order fragment of computability logic called the finite-depth, elementary-base fragment. Among the potential application areas for this result are the theory of interactive computation, constructive applied theories, knowledgebase systems, systems for resource-bound planning and action. This paper is self-contained as it reintroduces all relevant definitions as well as main motivations.Comment: To appear in Theoretical Computer Scienc

Invariant Generation through Strategy Iteration in Succinctly Represented Control Flow Graphs

We consider the problem of computing numerical invariants of programs, for instance bounds on the values of numerical program variables. More specifically, we study the problem of performing static analysis by abstract interpretation using template linear constraint domains. Such invariants can be obtained by Kleene iterations that are, in order to guarantee termination, accelerated by widening operators. In many cases, however, applying this form of extrapolation leads to invariants that are weaker than the strongest inductive invariant that can be expressed within the abstract domain in use. Another well-known source of imprecision of traditional abstract interpretation techniques stems from their use of join operators at merge nodes in the control flow graph. The mentioned weaknesses may prevent these methods from proving safety properties. The technique we develop in this article addresses both of these issues: contrary to Kleene iterations accelerated by widening operators, it is guaranteed to yield the strongest inductive invariant that can be expressed within the template linear constraint domain in use. It also eschews join operators by distinguishing all paths of loop-free code segments. Formally speaking, our technique computes the least fixpoint within a given template linear constraint domain of a transition relation that is succinctly expressed as an existentially quantified linear real arithmetic formula. In contrast to previously published techniques that rely on quantifier elimination, our algorithm is proved to have optimal complexity: we prove that the decision problem associated with our fixpoint problem is in the second level of the polynomial-time hierarchy.Comment: 35 pages, conference version published at ESOP 2011, this version is a CoRR version of our submission to Logical Methods in Computer Scienc