Separation Logic Modulo Theories

Logical reasoning about program data often requires dealing with heap structures as well as scalar data types. Recent advances in Satisfiability Modular Theory (SMT) already offer efficient procedures for dealing with scalars, yet they lack any support for dealing with heap structures. In this paper, we present an approach that integrates Separation Logic---a prominent logic for reasoning about list segments on the heap---and SMT. We follow a model-based approach that communicates aliasing among heap cells between the SMT solver and the Separation Logic reasoning part. An experimental evaluation using the Z3 solver indicates that our approach can effectively put to work the advances in SMT for dealing with heap structures. This is the first decision procedure for the combination of separation logic with SMT theories.Comment: 16 page

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

An efficient contradiction separation based automated deduction algorithm for enhancing reasoning capability

Automated theorem prover (ATP) for first-order logic (FOL), as a significant inference engine, is one of the hot research areas in the field of knowledge representation and automated reasoning. E prover, as one of the leading ATPs, has made a significant contribution to the development of theorem provers for FOL, particularly equality handling, after more than two decades of development. However, there are still a large number of problems in the TPTP problem library, the benchmark problem library for ATPs, that E has yet to solve. The standard contradiction separation (S-CS) rule is an inference method introduced recently that can handle multiple clauses in a synergized way and has a few distinctive features which complements to the calculus of E. Binary clauses, on the other hand, are widely utilized in the automated deduction process for FOL because they have a minimal number of literals (typically only two literals), few symbols, and high manipulability. As a result, it is feasible to improve a prover's deduction capability by reusing binary clause. In this paper, a binary clause reusing algorithm based on the S-CS rule is firstly proposed, which is then incorporated into E with the objective to enhance E’s performance, resulting in an extended E prover. According to experimental findings, the performance of the extended E prover not only outperforms E itself in a variety of aspects, but also solves 18 problems with rating of 1 in the TPTP library, meaning that none of the existing ATPs are able to resolve them

Formalizing the Metatheory of Logical Calculi and Automatic Provers in Isabelle/HOL (Invited Talk)

International audienceIsaFoL (Isabelle Formalization of Logic) is an undertaking that aims at developing formal theories about logics, proof systems, and automatic provers, using Isabelle/HOL. At the heart of the project is the conviction that proof assistants have become mature enough to actually help researchers in automated reasoning when they develop new calculi and tools. In this paper, I describe and reflect on three verification subprojects to which I contributed: a first-order resolution prover, an imperative SAT solver, and generalized term orders for λ-free higher-order logic

Disproving in First-Order Logic with Definitions, Arithmetic and Finite Domains

This thesis explores several methods which enable a first-order reasoner to conclude satisfiability of a formula modulo an arithmetic theory. The most general method requires restricting certain quantifiers to range over finite sets; such assumptions are common in the software verification setting. In addition, the use of first-order reasoning allows for an implicit representation of those finite sets, which can avoid scalability problems that affect other quantified reasoning methods. These new techniques form a useful complement to existing methods that are primarily aimed at proving validity. The Superposition calculus for hierarchic theory combinations provides a basis for reasoning modulo theories in a first-order setting. The recent account of ‘weak abstraction’ and related improvements make an mplementation of the calculus practical. Also, for several logical theories of interest Superposition is an effective decision procedure for the quantifier free fragment. The first contribution is an implementation of that calculus (Beagle), including an optimized implementation of Cooper’s algorithm for quantifier elimination in the theory of linear integer arithmetic. This includes a novel means of extracting values for quantified variables in satisfiable integer problems. Beagle won an efficiency award at CADE Automated theorem prover System Competition (CASC)-J7, and won the arithmetic non-theorem category at CASC-25. This implementation is the start point for solving the ‘disproving with theories’ problem. Some hypotheses can be disproved by showing that, together with axioms the hypothesis is unsatisfiable. Often this is relative to other axioms that enrich a base theory by defining new functions. In that case, the disproof is contingent on the satisfiability of the enrichment. Satisfiability in this context is undecidable. Instead, general characterizations of definition formulas, which do not alter the satisfiability status of the main axioms, are given. These general criteria apply to recursive definitions, definitions over lists, and to arrays. This allows proving some non-theorems which are otherwise intractable, and justifies similar disproofs of non-linear arithmetic formulas. When the hypothesis is contingently true, disproof requires proving existence of a model. If the Superposition calculus saturates a clause set, then a model exists, but only when the clause set satisfies a completeness criterion. This requires each instance of an uninterpreted, theory-sorted term to have a definition in terms of theory symbols. The second contribution is a procedure that creates such definitions, given that a subset of quantifiers range over finite sets. Definitions are produced in a counter-example driven way via a sequence of over and under approximations to the clause set. Two descriptions of the method are given: the first uses the component solver modularly, but has an inefficient counter-example heuristic. The second is more general, correcting many of the inefficiencies of the first, yet it requires tracking clauses through a proof. This latter method is shown to apply also to lists and to problems with unbounded quantifiers. Together, these tools give new ways for applying successful first-order reasoning methods to problems involving interpreted theories

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

Enhancing Total Correctness Proofs in Program Verification

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH