A theory of resolution

We review the fundamental resolution-based methods for first-order theorem proving and present them in a uniform framework. We show that these calculi can be viewed as specializations of non-clausal resolution with simplification. Simplification techniques are justified with the help of a rather general notion of redundancy for inferences. As simplification and other techniques for the elimination of redundancy are indispensable for an acceptable behaviour of any practical theorem prover this work is the first uniform treatment of resolution-like techniques in which the avoidance of redundant computations attains the attention it deserves. In many cases our presentation of a resolution method will indicate new ways of how to improve the method over what was known previously. We also give answers to several open problems in the area

The hyper Tableaux calculus with equality and an application to finite model computation

In most theorem proving applications, a proper treatment of equational theories or equality is mandatory. In this article we show how to integrate a modern treatment of equality in the hyper tableau calculus. It is based on splitting of positive clauses and an adapted version of the superposition inference rule, where equations used for superposition are drawn (only) from a set of positive unit clauses, and superposition inferences into positive literals is restricted into (positive) unit clauses only. The calculus also features a generic, semantically justified simplification rule which covers many redundancy elimination techniques known from superposition theorem proving. Our main results are soundness and completeness of the calculus, but we also show how to apply the calculus for finite model computation, and we briefly describe the implementation

Proof-theoretic Semantics for Intuitionistic Multiplicative Linear Logic

This work is the first exploration of proof-theoretic semantics for a substructural logic. It focuses on the base-extension semantics (B-eS) for intuitionistic multiplicative linear logic (IMLL). The starting point is a review of Sandqvist’s B-eS for intuitionistic propositional logic (IPL), for which we propose an alternative treatment of conjunction that takes the form of the generalized elimination rule for the connective. The resulting semantics is shown to be sound and complete. This motivates our main contribution, a B-eS for IMLL , in which the definitions of the logical constants all take the form of their elimination rule and for which soundness and completeness are established

Using automata to characterise fixed point temporal logics

This work examines propositional fixed point temporal and modal logics called mu-calculi and their relationship to automata on infinite strings and trees. We use correspondences between formulae and automata to explore definability in mu-calculi and their fragments, to provide normal forms for formulae, and to prove completeness of axiomatisations. The study of such methods for describing infinitary languages is of fundamental importance to the areas of computer science dealing with non-terminating computations, in particular to the specification and verification of concurrent and reactive systems. To emphasise the close relationship between formulae of mu-calculi and alternating automata, we introduce a new first recurrence acceptance condition for automata, checking intuitively whether the first infinitely often occurring state in a run is accepting. Alternating first recurrence automata can be identified with mu-calculus formulae, and ordinary, non-alternating first recurrence automata with formulae in a particular normal form, the strongly aconjunctive form. Automata with more traditional Büchi and Rabin acceptance conditions can be easily unwound to first recurrence automata, i.e. to mu-calculus formulae. In the other direction, we describe a powerset operation for automata that corresponds to fixpoints, allowing us to translate formulae inductively to ordinary Büchi and Rabin-automata. These translations give easy proofs of the facts that Rabin-automata, the full mu-calculus, its strongly aconjunctive fragment and the monadic second-order calculus of n successors SnS are all equiexpressive, that Büchi-automata, the fixpoint alternation class Pi_2 and the strongly aconjunctive fragment of Pi_2 are similarly related, and that the weak SnS and the fixpoint-alternation-free fragment of mu-calculus also coincide. As corollaries we obtain Rabin's complementation lemma and the powerful decidability result of SnS. We then describe a direct tableau decision method for modal and linear-time mu-calculi, based on the notion of definition trees. The tableaux can be interpreted as first recurrence automata, so the construction can also be viewed as a transformation to the strongly aconjunctive normal form. Finally, we present solutions to two open axiomatisation problems, for the linear-time mu-calculus and its extension with path quantifiers. Both completeness proofs are based on transforming formulae to normal forms inspired by automata. In extending the completeness result of the linear-time mu-calculus to the version with path quantifiers, the essential problem is capturing the limit closure property of paths in an axiomatisation. To this purpose, we introduce a new \exists\nu-induction inference rule

Representing scope in intuitionistic deductions

AbstractIntuitionistic proofs can be segmented into scopes which describe when assumptions can be used. In standard descriptions of intuitionistic logic, these scopes occupy contiguous regions of proofs. This leads to an explosion in the search space for automated deduction, because of the difficulty of planning to apply a rule inside a particular scoped region of the proof. This paper investigates an alternative representation which assigns scope explicitly to formulas, and which is inspired in part by semantics-based translation methods for modal deduction. This calculus is simple and is justified by direct proof-theoretic arguments that transform proofs in the calculus so that scopes match standard descriptions. A Herbrand theorem, established straightforwardly, lifts this calculus to incorporate unification. The resulting system has no impermutabilities whatsoever — rules of inference may be used equivalently anywhere in the proof. Nevertheless, a natural specification describes how λ-terms are to be extracted from its deductions

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

Demystifying μ\mu

We develop the theory of illfounded and cyclic proof systems in the context of the modal $\mu$-calculus. A fine analysis of provability and admissibility bridges the finitary, cyclic and illfounded notions of proof for this logic and re-enforces the subtlety of two important normal form theorems: guardedness and disjunctiveness