Efficient Instantiation Techniques in SMT (Work In Progress)

International audienceIn SMT solving one generally applies heuristic instantiation to handle quantified formulas. This has the side effect of producing many spurious instances and may lead to loss of performance. Therefore deriving both fewer and more meaningful instances as well as eliminating or dismissing , i.e., keeping but ignoring, those not significant for the solving are desirable features for dealing with first-order problems. This paper presents preliminary work on two approaches: the implementation of an efficient instantiation framework with an incomplete goal-oriented search; and the introduction of dismissing criteria for heuristic instances. Our experiments show that while the former improves performance in general the latter is highly dependent on the problem structure, but its combination with the classic strategy leads to competitive results w.r.t. state-of-the-art SMT solvers in several benchmark libraries

Language and Proofs for Higher-Order SMT (Work in Progress)

Satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solvers have throughout the years been able to cope with increasingly expressive formulas, from ground logics to full first-order logic modulo theories. Nevertheless, higher-order logic within SMT is still little explored. One main goal of the Matryoshka project, which started in March 2017, is to extend the reasoning capabilities of SMT solvers and other automatic provers beyond first-order logic. In this preliminary report, we report on an extension of the SMT-LIB language, the standard input format of SMT solvers, to handle higher-order constructs. We also discuss how to augment the proof format of the SMT solver veriT to accommodate these new constructs and the solving techniques they require.Comment: In Proceedings PxTP 2017, arXiv:1712.0089

Congruence Closure with Free Variables (Work in Progress)

International audienceThis paper presents preliminary work on the definition of a general framework for handling quantified formulas in SMT solving. Its focus is on the derivation of instances conflicting with a ground context, redefining the approach introduced in [11]. An enhanced version of the classical congruence closure algorithm, able to handle free variables, is presented

Alethe: Towards a Generic SMT Proof Format (extended abstract)

The first iteration of the proof format used by the SMT solver veriT was presented ten years ago at the first PxTP workshop. Since then the format has matured. veriT proofs are used within multiple applications, and other solvers generate proofs in the same format. We would now like to gather feedback from the community to guide future developments. Towards this, we review the history of the format, present our pragmatic approach to develop the format, and also discuss problems that might arise when other solvers use the format.Comment: In Proceedings PxTP 2021, arXiv:2107.0154

Scalable Fine-Grained Proofs for Formula Processing

We present a framework for processing formulas in automatic theorem provers, with generation of detailed proofs. The main components are a generic contextual recursion algorithm and an extensible set of inference rules. Clausification, skolemization, theory-specific simplifications, and expansion of 'let' expressions are instances of this framework. With suitable data structures, proof generation adds only a linear-time overhead, and proofs can be checked in linear time. We implemented the approach in the SMT solver veriT. This allowed us to dramatically simplify the code base while increasing the number of problems for which detailed proofs can be produced, which is important for independent checking and reconstruction in proof assistants

Revisiting Enumerative Instantiation

Formal methods applications often rely on SMT solvers to automatically discharge proof obligations. SMT solvers handle quantified formulas using incomplete heuristic techniques like E-matching, and often resort to model-based quantifier instantiation (MBQI) when these techniques fail. This paper revisits enumerative instantiation, a technique that considers instantiations based on exhaustive enumeration of ground terms. Although simple, we argue that enumer-ative instantiation can supplement other instantiation techniques and be a viable alternative to MBQI for valid proof obligations. We first present a stronger Her-brand Theorem, better suited as a basis for the instantiation loop used in SMT solvers; it furthermore requires considering less instances than classical Herbrand instantiation. Based on this result, we present different strategies for combining enumerative instantiation with other instantiation techniques in an effective way. The experimental evaluation shows that the implementation of these new techniques in the SMT solver CVC4 leads to significant improvements in several benchmark libraries, including many stemming from verification efforts

Better SMT Proofs for Easier Reconstruction

International audienceProof assistants are used in verification, formal mathematics, and other areas to provide trustworthy , machine-checkable formal proofs of theorems. Proof automation reduces the burden of proof on users, thereby allowing them to focus on the core of their arguments. A successful approach to automation is to invoke an external automatic theorem prover, such as a satisfiability-modulo-theories (SMT) solver, reconstructing any generated proofs using the proof assistant's inference kernel. The success rate of reconstruction, and hence the usefulness of this approach, depends on the quality of the generated proofs. We report on the experience gained by working on reconstruction of proofs generated by an SMT solver while also improving the solver's output

Congruence Closure with Free Variables

Many verification techniques nowadays successfully rely on SMT solvers as back-ends to automatically discharge proof obligations. These solvers generally rely on various instantiation techniques to handle quantifiers. We here show that the major instantiation techniques in SMT solving can be cast in a unifying framework for handling quantified formulas with equality and uninterpreted functions. This framework is based on the problem of E-ground (dis)unification, a variation of the classic rigid E-unification problem. We introduce a sound and complete calculus to solve this problem in practice: Congruence Closure with Free Variables (CCFV). Experimental evaluations of implementations of CCFV in the state-of-the-art solver CVC4 and in the solver veriT exhibit improvements in the former and makes the latter competitive with state-of-the-art solvers in several benchmark libraries stemming from verification efforts

Lifting congruence closure with free variables to λ-free higher-order logic via SAT encoding

International audienceRecent work in extending SMT solvers to higher-order logic (HOL) has not explored lifting quantifier instantiation algorithms to perform higher-order unification. As a consequence, widely used instantiation techniques, such as trigger-and particularly conflictbased, can only be applied in a limited manner. Congruence closure with free variables (CCFV) is a decision procedure for the E-ground (dis-)unification problem, which is at the heart of these instantiation techniques. Here, as a first step towards fully supporting trigger-and conflict-based instantiation in HOL, we define the E-ground (dis-)unification problem in λ-free higher-order logic (λfHOL), an extension of first-order logic where function symbols may be partially applied and functional variables may occur, and extend CCFV to solve it. To improve scalability in the context of handling higher-order variables, we rely on an encoding of the CCFV search as a propositional formula. We present a solution reconstruction procedure so that models for the propositional formula lead to solutions for the E-ground (dis-)unification problem. This is instrumental to port triggerand conflict-based instantiation to be fully applied in λfHOL. * The order of authors is inverse alphabetic