Informal proof, formal proof, formalism

Increases in the use of automated theorem-provers have renewed focus on the relationship between the informal proofs normally found in mathematical research and fully formalised derivations. Whereas some claim that any correct proof will be underwritten by a fully formal proof, sceptics demur. In this paper I look at the relevance of these issues for formalism, construed as an anti-platonistic metaphysical doctrine. I argue that there are strong reasons to doubt that all proofs are fully formalisable, if formal proofs are required to be finitary, but that, on a proper view of the way in which formal proofs idealise actual practice, this restriction is unjustified and formalism is not threatened

Formal Proof of SCHUR Conjugate Function

The main goal of our work is to formally prove the correctness of the key commands of the SCHUR software, an interactive program for calculating with characters of Lie groups and symmetric functions. The core of the computations relies on enumeration and manipulation of combinatorial structures. As a first "proof of concept", we present a formal proof of the conjugate function, written in C. This function computes the conjugate of an integer partition. To formally prove this program, we use the Frama-C software. It allows us to annotate C functions and to generate proof obligations, which are proved using several automated theorem provers. In this paper, we also draw on methodology, discussing on how to formally prove this kind of program.Comment: To appear in CALCULEMUS 201

Lower secondary school students’ understanding of algebraic proof

Secondary school students are known to face a range of difficulties in learning about proof and proving in mathematics. This paper reports on a study designed to address the issue of students’ cognitive needs for conviction and verification in algebraic statements. Through an analysis of data from 418 students (206 from Grade 8, and 212 from Grade 9), we report on how students might be able to ‘construct’ a formal proof, yet they may not fully appreciate the significance of such formal proof. The students may believe that formal proof is a valid argument, while, at the same time, they also resort to experimental verification as an acceptable way of ‘ensuring’ universality and generality of algebraic statement

A FORMAL PROOF OF THE FACTOR PRICE EQUALIZATION THEOREM

This paper provides a formal proof of the Factor Price Equalization Theorem within the Heckscher Ohlin model derived by Ronald W. Jones in The Structure of Simple General Equilibrium Models" (1965), where formal proof is provided for the Heckscher Ohlin, Stolper Samuelson and Rybczynski Theorems."International Trade

A formal proof of the Born rule from decision-theoretic assumptions

I develop the decision-theoretic approach to quantum probability, originally proposed by David Deutsch, into a mathematically rigorous proof of the Born rule in (Everett-interpreted) quantum mechanics. I sketch the argument informally, then prove it formally, and lastly consider a number of proposed ``counter-examples'' to show exactly which premises of the argument they violate.Comment: 36 pages. To appear (under the title "How to prove the Born rule") in Saunders, Barrett, Kent and Wallace, "Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory, and Reality" (Oxford University Press

Formal proof for delayed finite field arithmetic using floating point operators

Formal proof checkers such as Coq are capable of validating proofs of correction of algorithms for finite field arithmetics but they require extensive training from potential users. The delayed solution of a triangular system over a finite field mixes operations on integers and operations on floating point numbers. We focus in this report on verifying proof obligations that state that no round off error occurred on any of the floating point operations. We use a tool named Gappa that can be learned in a matter of minutes to generate proofs related to floating point arithmetic and hide technicalities of formal proof checkers. We found that three facilities are missing from existing tools. The first one is the ability to use in Gappa new lemmas that cannot be easily expressed as rewriting rules. We coined the second one ``variable interchange'' as it would be required to validate loop interchanges. The third facility handles massive loop unrolling and argument instantiation by generating traces of execution for a large number of cases. We hope that these facilities may sometime in the future be integrated into mainstream code validation.Comment: 8th Conference on Real Numbers and Computers, Saint Jacques de Compostelle : Espagne (2008

Has the Born rule been proven?

This note is a somewhat-lighthearted comment on a recent paper by David Wallace, arXiv:0906.2718[quant-ph] entitled "A formal proof of the Born rule from decision-theoretic assumptions".Comment: 10 pages, no figure