Proof Relevant Corecursive Resolution

Resolution lies at the foundation of both logic programming and type class context reduction in functional languages. Terminating derivations by resolution have well-defined inductive meaning, whereas some non-terminating derivations can be understood coinductively. Cycle detection is a popular method to capture a small subset of such derivations. We show that in fact cycle detection is a restricted form of coinductive proof, in which the atomic formula forming the cycle plays the role of coinductive hypothesis. This paper introduces a heuristic method for obtaining richer coinductive hypotheses in the form of Horn formulas. Our approach subsumes cycle detection and gives coinductive meaning to a larger class of derivations. For this purpose we extend resolution with Horn formula resolvents and corecursive evidence generation. We illustrate our method on non-terminating type class resolution problems.Comment: 23 pages, with appendices in FLOPS 201

Focused labeled proof systems for modal logic

International audienceFocused proofs are sequent calculus proofs that group inference rules into alternating positive and negative phases. These phases can then be used to define macro-level inference rules from Gentzen's original and tiny introduction and structural rules. We show here that the inference rules of labeled proof systems for modal logics can similarly be described as pairs of such phases within the LKF focused proof system for first-order classical logic. We consider the system G3K of Negri for the modal logic K and define a translation from labeled modal formulas into first-order polarized formulas and show a strict correspondence between derivations in the two systems, i.e., each rule application in G3K corresponds to a bipole—a pair of a positive and a negative phases—in LKF. Since geometric axioms (when properly polarized) induce bipoles, this strong correspondence holds for all modal logics whose Kripke frames are characterized by geometric properties. We extend these results to present a focused labeled proof system for this same class of modal logics and show its soundness and completeness. The resulting proof system allows one to define a rich set of normal forms of modal logic proofs

Linear Logic Programming for Narrative Generation

Abstract. In this paper, we explore the use of Linear Logic programming for story generation. We use the language Celf to represent narrative knowledge, and its own querying mechanism to generate story instances, through a number of proof terms. Each proof term obtained is used, through a resource-flow analysis, to build a directed graph where nodes are narrative actions and edges represent inferred causality relationships. Such graphs represent narrative plots structured by narrative causality. Building on previous work evidencing the suitability of Linear Logic as a conceptual model of action and change for narratives, we explore the conditions under which these representations can be operationalized through Linear Logic Programming techniques. This approach is a candidate technique for narrative generation which unifies declarative representations and generation via query and deduction mechanisms

A Focused Sequent Calculus Framework for Proof Search in Pure Type Systems

Basic proof-search tactics in logic and type theory can be seen as the root-first applications of rules in an appropriate sequent calculus, preferably without the redundancies generated by permutation of rules. This paper addresses the issues of defining such sequent calculi for Pure Type Systems (PTS, which were originally presented in natural deduction style) and then organizing their rules for effective proof-search. We introduce the idea of Pure Type Sequent Calculus with meta-variables (PTSCalpha), by enriching the syntax of a permutation-free sequent calculus for propositional logic due to Herbelin, which is strongly related to natural deduction and already well adapted to proof-search. The operational semantics is adapted from Herbelin's and is defined by a system of local rewrite rules as in cut-elimination, using explicit substitutions. We prove confluence for this system. Restricting our attention to PTSC, a type system for the ground terms of this system, we obtain the Subject Reduction property and show that each PTSC is logically equivalent to its corresponding PTS, and the former is strongly normalising iff the latter is. We show how to make the logical rules of PTSC into a syntax-directed system PS for proof-search, by incorporating the conversion rules as in syntax-directed presentations of the PTS rules for type-checking. Finally, we consider how to use the explicitly scoped meta-variables of PTSCalpha to represent partial proof-terms, and use them to analyse interactive proof construction. This sets up a framework PE in which we are able to study proof-search strategies, type inhabitant enumeration and (higher-order) unification

Towards an embedding of Graph Transformation in Intuitionistic Linear Logic

Linear logics have been shown to be able to embed both rewriting-based approaches and process calculi in a single, declarative framework. In this paper we are exploring the embedding of double-pushout graph transformations into quantified linear logic, leading to a Curry-Howard style isomorphism between graphs and transformations on one hand, formulas and proof terms on the other. With linear implication representing rules and reachability of graphs, and the tensor modelling parallel composition of graphs and transformations, we obtain a language able to encode graph transformation systems and their computations as well as reason about their properties

The Politics of Commerce : The Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, 1886-1914

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