Prenex Separation Logic with One Selector Field

International audienceWe show that infinite satisfiability can be reduced to finite satisfiabil-ity for all prenex formulas of Separation Logic with k ≥ 1 selector fields (SL k). This fact entails the decidability of the finite and infinite satisfiability problems for the class of prenex formulas of SL 1 , by reduction to the first-order theory of a single unary function symbol and an arbitrary number of unary predicate symbols. We also prove that the complexity of this fragment is not elementary recursive, by reduction from the first-order theory of one unary function symbol. Finally, we prove that the Bernays-Schönfinkel-Ramsey fragment of prenex SL 1 formulas with quantifier prefix in the language ∃ * ∀ * is PSPACE-complete

Program Verification with Separation Logic

International audienceSeparation Logic is a framework for the development of modular program analyses for sequential, inter-procedural and concurrent programs. The first part of the paper introduces Separation Logic first from a historical, then from a program verification perspective. Because program verification eventually boils down to deciding logical queries such as the validity of verification conditions, the second part is dedicated to a survey of decision procedures for Separation Logic, that stem from either SMT, proof theory or automata theory. Incidentally we address issues related to decidability and computational complexity of such problems, in order to expose certain sources of intractability

The Bernays-Schönfinkel-Ramsey Class of Separation Logic with Uninterpreted Predicates

International audienceThis paper investigates the satisfiability problem for Separation Logic with k record fields, with unrestricted nesting of separating conjunctions and implications. It focuses on prenex formulae with a quantifier prefix in the language ∃ * ∀ * , that contain uninterpreted (heap-independent) predicate symbols. In analogy with first-order logic, we call this fragment Bernays-Schönfinkel-Ramsey Separation Logic [BSR(SL k)]. In contrast with existing work on Separation Logic, in which the universe of possible locations is assumed to be infinite, we consider both finite and infinite universes in the present paper. We show that, unlike in first-order logic, the (in)finite satisfiability problem is undecidable for BSR(SL k). Then we define two non-trivial subsets thereof, for which the finite and infinite satisfiability problems are PSPACE-complete, respectively, assuming that the maximum arity of the uninterpreted predicate symbols does not depend on the input. These fragments are defined by controlling the polarity of the occurrences of separating implications, as well as the occurrences of universally quantified variables within their scope. These decidability results have natural applications in program verification, as they allow to automatically prove lemmas that occur in e.g. entailment checking between inductively defined predicates and validity checking of Hoare triples expressing partial correctness conditions

QBF Proof Complexity

Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF) and their proof complexity are not as well understood as propositional formulas, yet remain an area of interest due to their relation to QBF solving. Proof systems for QBF provide a theoretical underpinning for the performance of these solvers. We define a novel calculus IR-calc, which enables unification of the principal existing resolution-based QBF calculi and applies to the more powerful Dependency QBF (DQBF). We completely reveal the relative power of important QBF resolution systems, settling in particular the relationship between the two different types of resolution-based QBF calculi. The most challenging part of this comparison is to exhibit hard formulas that underlie the exponential separations of the proof systems. In contrast to classical proof complexity we are currently short of lower bound techniques for QBF proof systems. To this end we exhibit a new proof technique for showing lower bounds in QBF proof systems based on strategy extraction. We also find that the classical lower bound techniques of the prover-delayer game and feasible interpolation can be lifted to a QBF setting and provide new lower bounds. We investigate more powerful proof systems such as extended resolution and Frege systems. We define and investigate new QBF proof systems that mix propositional rules with a reduction rule, we find the strategy extraction technique also works and directly lifts lower bounds from circuit complexity. Such a direct transfer from circuit to proof complexity lower bounds has often been postulated, but had not been formally established for propositional proof systems prior to this work. This leads to strong lower bounds for restricted versions of QBF Frege, in particular an exponential lower bound for QBF Frege systems operating with AC0[p] circuits. In contrast, any non-trivial lower bound for propositional AC0[p]-Frege constitutes a major open problem

An SMT-based verification framework for software systems handling arrays

Recent advances in the areas of automated reasoning and first-order theorem proving paved the way to the developing of effective tools for the rigorous formal analysis of computer systems. Nowadays many formal verification frameworks are built over highly engineered tools (SMT-solvers) implementing decision procedures for quantifier- free fragments of theories of interest for (dis)proving properties of software or hardware products. The goal of this thesis is to go beyond the quantifier-free case and enable sound and effective solutions for the analysis of software systems requiring the usage of quantifiers. This is the case, for example, of software systems handling array variables, since meaningful properties about arrays (e.g., "the array is sorted") can be expressed only by exploiting quantification. The first contribution of this thesis is the definition of a new Lazy Abstraction with Interpolants framework in which arrays can be handled in a natural manner. We identify a fragment of the theory of arrays admitting quantifier-free interpolation and provide an effective quantifier-free interpolation algorithm. The combination of this result with an important preprocessing technique allows the generation of the required quantified formulae. Second, we prove that accelerations, i.e., transitive closures, of an interesting class of relations over arrays are definable in the theory of arrays via Exists-Forall-first order formulae. We further show that the theoretical importance of this result has a practical relevance: Once the (problematic) nested quantifiers are suitably handled, acceleration offers a precise (not over-approximated) alternative to abstraction solutions. Third, we present new decision procedures for quantified fragments of the theories of arrays. Our decision procedures are fully declarative, parametric in the theories describing the structure of the indexes and the elements of the arrays and orthogonal with respect to known results. Fourth, by leveraging our new results on acceleration and decision procedures, we show that the problem of checking the safety of an important class of programs with arrays is fully decidable. The thesis presents along with theoretical results practical engineering strategies for the effective implementation of a framework combining the aforementioned results: The declarative nature of our contributions allows for the definition of an integrated framework able to effectively check the safety of programs handling array variables while overcoming the individual limitations of the presented techniques

Computer Aided Verification

The open access two-volume set LNCS 11561 and 11562 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2019, held in New York City, USA, in July 2019. The 52 full papers presented together with 13 tool papers and 2 case studies, were carefully reviewed and selected from 258 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections: Part I: automata and timed systems; security and hyperproperties; synthesis; model checking; cyber-physical systems and machine learning; probabilistic systems, runtime techniques; dynamical, hybrid, and reactive systems; Part II: logics, decision procedures; and solvers; numerical programs; verification; distributed systems and networks; verification and invariants; and concurrency

Computer Aided Verification

The open access two-volume set LNCS 11561 and 11562 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2019, held in New York City, USA, in July 2019. The 52 full papers presented together with 13 tool papers and 2 case studies, were carefully reviewed and selected from 258 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections: Part I: automata and timed systems; security and hyperproperties; synthesis; model checking; cyber-physical systems and machine learning; probabilistic systems, runtime techniques; dynamical, hybrid, and reactive systems; Part II: logics, decision procedures; and solvers; numerical programs; verification; distributed systems and networks; verification and invariants; and concurrency

Embedding Theorem for the automorphism group of the α-enumeration degrees

It is a theorem of classical Computability Theory that the automorphism group of the enumeration degrees D_e embeds into the automorphism group of the Turing degrees D_T . This follows from the following three statements: 1. D_T embeds to D_e , 2. D_T is an automorphism base for D_e, 3. D_T is definable in D_e . The first statement is trivial. The second statement follows from the Selman’s theorem: A ≤e B ⇐⇒ ∀X ⊆ ω[B ≤e X ⊕ complement(X) implies A ≤e X ⊕ complement(X)]. The third statement follows from the definability of a Kalimullin pair in the α-enumeration degrees D_e and the following theorem: an enumeration degree is total iff it is trivial or a join of a maximal Kalimullin pair. Following an analogous pattern, this thesis aims to generalize the results above to the setting of α-Computability theory. The main result of this thesis is Embedding Theorem: the automorphism group of the α-enumeration degrees D_αe embeds into the automorphism group of the α-degrees D_α if α is an infinite regular cardinal and assuming the axiom of constructibility V = L. If α is a general admissible ordinal, weaker results are proved involving assumptions on the megaregularity. In the proof of the definability of D_α in D_αe a helpful concept of α-rational numbers Q_α emerges as a generalization of the rational numbers Q and an analogue of hyperrationals. This is the most valuable theory development of this thesis with many potentially fruitful directions