Strategic Issues, Problems and Challenges in Inductive Theorem Proving

Abstract(Automated) Inductive Theorem Proving (ITP) is a challenging field in automated reasoning and theorem proving. Typically, (Automated) Theorem Proving (TP) refers to methods, techniques and tools for automatically proving general (most often first-order) theorems. Nowadays, the field of TP has reached a certain degree of maturity and powerful TP systems are widely available and used. The situation with ITP is strikingly different, in the sense that proving inductive theorems in an essentially automatic way still is a very challenging task, even for the most advanced existing ITP systems. Both in general TP and in ITP, strategies for guiding the proof search process are of fundamental importance, in automated as well as in interactive or mixed settings. In the paper we will analyze and discuss the most important strategic and proof search issues in ITP, compare ITP with TP, and argue why ITP is in a sense much more challenging. More generally, we will systematically isolate, investigate and classify the main problems and challenges in ITP w.r.t. automation, on different levels and from different points of views. Finally, based on this analysis we will present some theses about the state of the art in the field, possible criteria for what could be considered as substantial progress, and promising lines of research for the future, towards (more) automated ITP

Scavenger 0.1: A Theorem Prover Based on Conflict Resolution

This paper introduces Scavenger, the first theorem prover for pure first-order logic without equality based on the new conflict resolution calculus. Conflict resolution has a restricted resolution inference rule that resembles (a first-order generalization of) unit propagation as well as a rule for assuming decision literals and a rule for deriving new clauses by (a first-order generalization of) conflict-driven clause learning.Comment: Published at CADE 201

A Rewrite System for Proof Constructivization

International audienceProof constructivization is the problem of automatically extracting constructive proofs out of classical proofs. This process is required when classical theorem provers are integrated in intuitionistic proof assistants. We use the ability of rewrite systems to represent partial functions to implement heuristics for proof constructivization in Dedukti, a logical framework based on rewriting in which proofs are first-class objects which can be the subject of computation. We benchmark these heuristics on the proofs output by the automated theorem prover Zenon on the TPTP library of problems

Fast subsumption checks using anti-links

The concept of "anti-link" is defined, and useful equivalence-preserving operations based on anti-links are introduced.These operations eliminate a potentially large number of subsumed paths in a negation normal form formula.Those anti-links that directly indicate the presence of subsumed paths are characterized. The operations have linear time complexity in the size of that part of the formula containing the anti-link. The problem of removing all subsumed paths in an NNF formula is shown to be NP-hard, even though such formulas may be small relative to the size of their path sets. The general problem of determining whether there exists a pair of subsumed paths associated with an arbitrary anti-link is shown to be NP-complete. Additional techniques based on "strictly pure full blocks" are introduced and are also shown to eliminate redundant subsumption checks. The effectiveness of these techniques is examined with respect to some benchmark examples from the literature

Mécanismes Orientés-Objets pour l'Interopérabilité entre Systèmes de Preuve

Dedukti is a Logical Framework resulting from the combination ofdependent typing and rewriting. It can be used to encode many logicalsystems using shallow embeddings preserving their notion of reduction.These translations of logical systems in a common format are anecessary first step for exchanging proofs between systems. Thisobjective of interoperability of proof systems is the main motivationof this thesis.To achieve it, we take inspiration from the world of programminglanguages and more specifically from object-oriented languages becausethey feature advanced mechanisms for encapsulation, modularity, anddefault definitions. For this reason we start by a shallowtranslation of an object calculus to Dedukti. The most interestingpoint in this translation is the treatment of subtyping.Unfortunately, it seems very hard to incorporate logic in this objectcalculus. To proceed, object-oriented mechanisms should be restrictedto static ones which seem enough for interoperability. Such acombination of static object-oriented mechanisms and logic is alreadypresent in the FoCaLiZe environment so we propose a shallow embeddingof FoCaLiZe in Dedukti. The main difficulties arise from theintegration of FoCaLiZe automatic theorem prover Zenon and from thetranslation of FoCaLiZe functional implementation language featuringtwo constructs which have no simple counterparts in Dedukti: localpattern matching and recursion.We then demonstrate how this embedding of FoCaLiZe to Dedukti can beused in practice for achieving interoperability of proof systemsthrough FoCaLiZe, Zenon, and Dedukti. In order to avoid strengtheningto much the theory in which the final proof is expressed, we useDedukti as a meta-language for eliminating unnecessary axioms.Dedukti est un cadre logique résultant de la combinaison du typagedépendant et de la réécriture. Il permet d'encoder de nombreuxsystèmes logiques au moyen de plongements superficiels qui préserventla notion de réduction.Ces traductions de systèmes logiques dans un format commun sont unepremière étape nécessaire à l'échange de preuves entre cessystèmes. Cet objectif d'interopérabilité des systèmes de preuve estla motivation principale de cette thèse.Pour y parvenir, nous nous inspirons du monde des langages deprogrammation et plus particulièrement des langages orientés-objetparce qu'ils mettent en œuvre des mécanismes avancés d'encapsulation,de modularité et de définitions par défaut. Pour cette raison, nouscommençons par une traduction superficielle d'un calcul orienté-objeten Dedukti. L'aspect le plus intéressant de cette traduction est letraitement du sous-typage.Malheureusement, ce calcul orienté-objet ne semble pas adapté àl'incorporation de traits logiques. Afin de continuer, nous devonsrestreindre les mécanismes orientés-objet à des mécanismes statiques,plus faciles à combiner avec la logique et apparemment suffisant pournotre objectif d'interopérabilité. Une telle combinaison de mécanismesorientés-objet et de logique est présente dans l'environnementFoCaLiZe donc nous proposons un encodage superficiel de FoCaLiZe dansDedukti. Les difficultés principales proviennent de l'intégration deZenon, le prouveur automatique de théorèmes sur lequel FoCaLiZerepose, et de la traduction du langage d'implantation fonctionnel deFoCaLiZe qui présente deux constructions qui n'ont pas decorrespondance simple en Dedukti : le filtrage de motif local et larécursivité.Nous démontrons finalement comment notre encodage de FoCaLiZe dansDedukti peut servir en pratique à l'interopérabilité entre dessystèmes de preuve à l'aide de FoCaLiZe, Zenon et Dedukti. Pour éviterde trop renforcer la théorie dans laquelle la preuve finale estobtenue, nous proposons d'utiliser Dedukti en tant que méta-langagepour éliminer des axiomes superflus

Automated Deduction – CADE 28

This open access book constitutes the proceeding of the 28th International Conference on Automated Deduction, CADE 28, held virtually in July 2021. The 29 full papers and 7 system descriptions presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 76 submissions. CADE is the major forum for the presentation of research in all aspects of automated deduction, including foundations, applications, implementations, and practical experience. The papers are organized in the following topics: Logical foundations; theory and principles; implementation and application; ATP and AI; and system descriptions