In this paper we develop cyclic proof systems for the problem of inclusion between the least sets of models of mutually recursive predicates, when the ground constraints in the inductive definitions belong to the quantifier-free fragments of (i) First Order Logic with the canonical Herbrand interpretation and (ii) Separation Logic, respectively. Inspired by classical automata-theoretic techniques of proving language inclusion between tree automata, we give a small set of inference rules, that are proved to be sound and complete, under certain semantic restrictions, involving the set of constraints in the inductive system. Moreover, we investigate the decidability and computational complexity of these restrictions for all the logical fragments considered and provide a proof search semi-algorithm that becomes a decision procedure for the entailment problem, for those systems that fulfill the restrictions.
The entailment between separation logic formulae with inductive predicates, also known as symbolic heaps, has been shown to be decidable for a large class of inductive definitions. Recently, a 2-EXPTIME algorithm was proposed and an EXPTIME-hard bound was established; however no precise lower bound is known. In this paper, we show that deciding entailment between predicate atoms is 2-EXPTIME-hard. The proof is based on a reduction from the membership problem for exponential-space bounded alternating Turing machines.
We develop a doubly-exponential decision procedure for the satisfiability problem of guarded separation logic -- a novel fragment of separation logic featuring user-supplied inductive predicates, Boolean connectives, and separating connectives, including restricted (guarded) versions of negation, magic wand, and septraction. Moreover, we show that dropping the guards for any of the above connectives leads to an undecidable fragment. We further apply our decision procedure to reason about entailments in the popular symbolic heap fragment of separation logic. In particular, we obtain a doubly-ex…
Separation Logic (SL) with inductive definitions is a natural formalism for specifying complex recursive data structures, used in compositional verification of programs manipulating such structures. The key ingredient of any automated verification procedure based on SL is the decidability of the entailment problem. In this work, we reduce the entailment problem for a non-trivial subset of SL describing trees (and beyond) to the language inclusion of tree automata (TA). Our reduction provides tight complexity bounds for the problem and shows that entailment in our fragment is EXPTIME-complete. …
The entailment problem $φ\models ψ$ in Separation Logic \cite{IshtiaqOHearn01,Reynolds02}, between separated conjunctions of equational ($x \iseq y$ and $x \not\iseq y$), spatial ($x \mapsto (y_1,\ldots,y_\rank)$) and predicate ($p(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$) atoms, interpreted by a finite set of inductive rules, is undecidable in general. Certain restrictions on the set of inductive definitions lead to decidable classes of entailment problems. Currently, there are two such decidable classes, based on two restrictions, called \emph{establishment} \cite{IosifRogalewiczSimacek13,KatelaanMathejaZuleger19,P…
We define a class of Separation Logic formulae, whose entailment problem: given formulae $ϕ, ψ_1, \ldots, ψ_n$, is every model of $ϕ$ a model of some $ψ_i$? is 2EXPTIME-complete. The formulae in this class are existentially quantified separating conjunctions involving predicate atoms, interpreted by the least sets of store-heap structures that satisfy a set of inductive rules, which is also part of the input to the entailment problem. Previous work consider established sets of rules, meaning that every existentially quantified variable in a rule must eventually be bound to an allocated locatio…
A cyclic proof system generalises the standard notion of a proof as a finite tree of locally sound inferences by allowing proof objects to be potentially infinite. Regular infinite proofs can be finitely represented as graphs. To preclude spurious cyclic reasoning, cyclic proof systems come equipped with a well-founded notion of 'size' for the models that interpret their logical statements. A global soundness condition on proof objects, stated in terms of this notion of size, ensures that any non-well-founded paths in the proof object can be disregarded. We give an abstract definition of a sub…
This paper presents an approach to lemma synthesis to support advanced inductive entailment procedures based on separation logic. We first propose a mechanism where lemmas are automatically proven and systematically applied. The lemmas may include universal guard and/or unknown predicate. While the former is critical for expressivity, the latter is essential for supporting relationships between multiple predicates. We further introduce lemma synthesis to support (i) automated inductive reasoning together with frame inference and (ii) theorem exploration. For (i) we automatically discover and p…
An efficient entailment proof system is essential to compositional verification using separation logic. Unfortunately, existing decision procedures are either inexpressive or inefficient. For example, Smallfoot is an efficient procedure but only works with hardwired lists and trees. Other procedures that can support general inductive predicates run exponentially in time as their proof search requires back-tracking to deal with a disjunction in the consequent. This paper presents a decision procedure to derive cyclic entailment proofs for general inductive predicates in polynomial time. Our pro…
A proof procedure, in the spirit of the sequent calculus, is proposed to check the validity of entailments between Separation Logic formulas combining inductively defined predicates denoted structures of bounded tree width and theory reasoning. The calculus is sound and complete, in the sense that a sequent is valid iff it admits a (possibly infinite) proof tree. We show that the procedure terminates in the two following cases: (i) When the inductive rules that define the predicates occurring on the left-hand side of the entailment terminate, in which case the proof tree is always finite. (ii)…
Separation logic is successful for software verification in both theory and practice. Decision procedure for symbolic heaps is one of the key issues. This paper proposes a cyclic proof system for symbolic heaps with general form of inductive definitions, and shows its soundness and completeness. The decision procedure for entailments of symbolic heaps with inductive definitions is also given. Decidability for entailments of symbolic heaps with inductive definitions is an important question. Completeness of cyclic proof systems is also an important question. The results of this paper answer bot…
Brotherston and Simpson [citation] have formalized and investigated cyclic reasoning, reaching the important conclusion that it is at least as powerful as inductive reasoning (specifically, they showed that each inductive proof can be translated into a cyclic proof). We add to their investigation by proving the converse of this result, namely that each inductive proof can be translated into an inductive one. This, in effect, establishes the equivalence between first order cyclic and inductive calculi.
Two results are presented concerning the entailment problem in Separation Logic with inductively defined predicate symbols and theory reasoning. First, we show that the entailment problem is undecidable for rules with bounded tree-width, if theory reasoning is considered. The result holds for a wide class of theories, even with a very low expressive power. For instance it applies to the natural numbers with the successor function, or with the usual order. Second, we show that every entailment problem can be reduced to an entailment problem containing no equality (neither in the formulas nor in…
The symbolic-heap fragment of separation logic has been actively developed and advocated for verifying the memory-safety property of computer programs. At present, one of its biggest challenges is to effectively prove entailments containing inductive heap predicates. These entailments are usually proof obligations generated when verifying programs that manipulate complex data structures like linked lists, trees, or graphs. To assist in proving such entailments, this paper introduces a lemma synthesis framework, which automatically discovers lemmas to serve as eureka steps in the proofs. Mathem…
Transitive closure logic is a known extension of first-order logic obtained by introducing a transitive closure operator. While other extensions of first-order logic with inductive definitions are a priori parametrized by a set of inductive definitions, the addition of the transitive closure operator uniformly captures all finitary inductive definitions. In this paper we present an infinitary proof system for transitive closure logic which is an infinite descent-style counterpart to the existing (explicit induction) proof system for the logic. We show that, as for similar systems for first-ord…
A cyclic proof system gives us another way of representing inductive definitions and efficient proof search. In 2011 Brotherston and Simpson conjectured the equivalence between the provability of the classical cyclic proof system and that of the classical system of Martin-Lof's inductive definitions. This paper studies the conjecture for intuitionistic logic. This paper first points out that the countermodel of FOSSACS 2017 paper by the same authors shows the conjecture for intuitionistic logic is false in general. Then this paper shows the conjecture for intuitionistic logic is true under ari…
Terms are a concise representation of tree structures. Since they can be naturally defined by an inductive type, they offer data structures in functional programming and mechanised reasoning with useful principles such as structural induction and structural recursion. However, for graphs or "tree-like" structures - trees involving cycles and sharing - it remains unclear what kind of inductive structures exists and how we can faithfully assign a term representation of them. In this paper we propose a simple term syntax for cyclic sharing structures that admits structural induction and recursion…
Checking the soundness of cyclic induction reasoning for first-order logic with inductive definitions (FOLID) is decidable but the standard checking method is based on an exponential complement operation for Büchi automata. Recently, we introduced a polynomial checking method whose most expensive steps recall the comparisons done with multiset path orderings. We describe the implementation of our method in the Cyclist prover. Referred to as E-Cyclist, it successfully checked all the proofs included in the original distribution of Cyclist. Heuristics have been devised to automatically define, f…
Cyclic pre-proofs can be represented as sets of finite tree derivations with back-links. In the frame of the first-order logic with inductive definitions, the nodes of the tree derivations are labelled by sequents and the back-links connect particular terminal nodes, referred to as buds, to other nodes labelled by a same sequent. However, only some back-links can constitute sound pre-proofs. Previously, it has been shown that special ordering and derivability conditions, defined along the minimal cycles of the digraph representing a particular normal form of the cyclic pre-proof, are sufficien…
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)（高级研究大学院（SOKENDAI））；National Institute of Informatics（情报学研究所）；Chiba University（千叶大学）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）
A cyclic proof system allows us to perform inductive reasoning without explicit inductions. We propose a cyclic proof system for HFLN, which is a higher-order predicate logic with natural numbers and alternating fixed-points. Ours is the first cyclic proof system for a higher-order logic, to our knowledge. Due to the presence of higher-order predicates and alternating fixed-points, our cyclic proof system requires a more delicate global condition on cyclic proofs than the original system of Brotherston and Simpson. We prove the decidability of checking the global condition and soundness of thi…
