Logic-based approaches to AI have the advantage that their behaviour can in principle be explained by providing their users with proofs for the derived consequences. However, if such proofs get very large, then it may be hard to understand a consequence even if the individual derivation steps are easy to comprehend. This motivates our interest in finding small proofs for Description Logic (DL) entailments. Instead of concentrating on a specific DL and proof calculus for this DL, we introduce a general framework in which proofs are represented as labeled, directed hypergraphs, where each hyperedge corresponds to a single sound derivation step. On the theoretical side, we investigate the complexity of deciding whether a certain consequence has a proof of size at most $n$ along the following orthogonal dimensions: (i) the underlying proof system is polynomial or exponential; (ii) proofs may or may not reuse already derived consequences; and (iii) the number $n$ is represented in unary or binary. We have determined the exact worst-case complexity of this decision problem for all but one of the possible combinations of these options. On the practical side, we have developed and implemented an approach for generating proofs for expressive DLs based on a non-standard reasoning task called forgetting. We have evaluated this approach on a set of realistic ontologies and compared the obtained proofs with proofs generated by the DL reasoner ELK, finding that forgetting-based proofs are often better w.r.t. different measures of proof complexity.
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…
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.
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. …
In this paper we consider the class of truth-functional many-valued logics with a finite set of truth-values. The main result of this paper is the development of a new \emph{binary} sequent calculi (each sequent is a pair of formulae) for many valued logic with a finite set of truth values, and of Kripke-like semantics for it that is both sound and complete. We did not use the logic entailment based on matrix with a strict subset of designated truth values, but a different new kind of semantics based on the generalization of the classic 2-valued truth-invariance entailment. In order to define …
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…
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…
ISTI - CNR（意大利国家研究委员会信息科学与技术研究所）；CAIR - University of Cape Town（开普敦大学CAIR）
Lehmann and Magidor's rational closure is acknowledged as a landmark in the field of non-monotonic logics and it has also been re-formulated in the context of Description Logics (DLs). We show here how to model a rational form of entailment for expressive DLs, such as SROIQ, providing a novel reasoning procedure that compiles a non-monotone DL knowledge base into a description logic program (dl-program).
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…
We prove the decidability of Ticket Entailment. Raised by Anderson and Belnap within the framework of relevance logic, this question is equivalent to the question of the decidability of type inhabitation in simply-typed combinatory logic with the partial basis BB'IW. We solve the equivalent problem of type inhabitation for the restriction of simply-typed lambda-calculus to hereditarily right-maximal terms.
We extend the epistemic logic with De Morgan negation by Fagin et al. (Artif. Intell. 79, 203-240, 1995) by adding operators for universal and common knowledge in a group of agents, and with a formalization of information update using a generalized version of the left division connective of the non-associative Lambek calculus. We provide sound and complete axiomatizations of the basic logic with the group operators and the basic logic with group operators and updates. Both logics are shown to be decidable.
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 constra…
We present a logic for reasoning with if-then formulas which involve constants for rational truth degrees from the unit interval. We introduce graded semantic and syntactic entailment of formulas. We prove the logic is complete in Pavelka style and depending on the choice of structure of truth degrees, the logic is a decidable fragment of the Rational Pavelka logic (RPL) or the Rational Product Logic (RΠL). We also present a characterization of the entailment based on least models and study related closure structures.
Quantitative separation logic (QSL) is an extension of separation logic (SL) for the verification of probabilistic pointer programs. In QSL, formulae evaluate to real numbers instead of truth values, e.g., the probability of memory-safe termination in a given symbolic heap. As with \SL, one of the key problems when reasoning with QSL is \emph{entailment}: does a formula f entail another formula g? We give a generic reduction from entailment checking in QSL to entailment checking in SL. This allows to leverage the large body of SL research for the automated verification of probabilistic pointer…
Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；University of Wrocław（弗罗茨瓦夫大学）
We present a unified approach to (both finite and unrestricted) worst-case optimal entailment of (unions of) conjunctive queries (U)CQs in the wide class of "locally-forward" description logics. The main technique that we employ is a generalisation of Lutz's spoiler technique, originally developed for CQ entailment in ALCHQ. Our result closes numerous gaps present in the literature, most notably implying ExpTime-completeness of (U)CQ-querying for any superlogic of ALC contained in ALCHbregQ, and, as we believe, is abstract enough to be employed as a black-box in many new scenarios.
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a Semantic Web standard that provides a data language, simply called RDF, as well as a lightweight ontology language, called RDF Schema. We investigate embeddings of RDF in logic and show how standard logic programming and description logic technology can be used for reasoning with RDF. We subsequently consider extensions of RDF with datatype support, considering D entailment, defined in the RDF semantics specification, and D* entailment, a semantic weakening of D entailment, introduced by ter Horst. We use the embeddings and properties of the logics…
In the present work I introduce a semantics based on the cognitive attitudes of acception and rejection entertained by a given society of agents for logics inspired on Dunn and Belnap's First Degree Entailment ($\mathbf{E}$). In contrast to the epistemic situations originally employed by $\mathbf{E}$, the cognitive attitudes do not coincide with truth-values and they seem more suitable to logics that intend to consider the informational content of propositions "said to be true" as well as of propositions "said to be false" as determinant of the notion of logical validity. After analyzing some …
Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学）；University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；CAIR（南非人工智能研究中心）；Univ. Artois（阿尔图瓦大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）
Propositional Typicality Logic (PTL) is a recently proposed logic, obtained by enriching classical propositional logic with a typicality operator capturing the most typical (alias normal or conventional) situations in which a given sentence holds. The semantics of PTL is in terms of ranked models as studied in the well-known KLM approach to preferential reasoning and therefore KLM-style rational consequence relations can be embedded in PTL. In spite of the non-monotonic features introduced by the semantics adopted for the typicality operator, the obvious Tarskian definition of entailment for P…
Towards Non-Monotonic Entailment in Propositional Defeasible Standpoint Logic
University of Cape Town and CAIR, South Africa（开普敦大学和CAIR，南非）；Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, Sorbonne Université, Limics, 93017 Bobigny, France（巴黎-索邦大学，Inserm，索邦大学，Limics，法国93017博比尼）；ISTI-CNR, Pisa, Italy（意大利比萨ISTI-CNR）
We present a sequent-based deductive system for automatically proving entailments in separation logic by using mathematical induction. Our technique, called mutual explicit induction proof, is an instance of Noetherian induction. Specifically, we propose a novel induction principle on a well-founded relation of separation logic model and follow the explicit induction methods to implement this principle as inference rules, so that it can be easily integrated into a deductive system. We also support mutual induction, a natural feature of implicit induction, where the goal entailment and other en…
We investigate the complexity consequences of adding pointer arithmetic to separation logic. Specifically, we study extensions of the points-to fragment of symbolic-heap separation logic with various forms of Presburger arithmetic constraints. Most significantly, we find that, even in the minimal case when we allow only conjunctions of simple "difference constraints" (x'\leq x+k) where k is an integer, polynomial-time decidability is already impossible: satisfiability becomes NP-complete, while quantifier-free entailment becomes coNP-complete and quantified entailment becomes P2-complete (P2 i…
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…
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…
Universität zu Köln（科隆大学）；Fraunhofer-Institut FKIE（弗劳恩霍夫FKIE研究所）
We present the architecture and the evaluation of a new system for recognizing textual entailment (RTE). In RTE we want to identify automatically the type of a logical relation between two input texts. In particular, we are interested in proving the existence of an entailment between them. We conceive our system as a modular environment allowing for a high-coverage syntactic and semantic text analysis combined with logical inference. For the syntactic and semantic analysis we combine a deep semantic analysis with a shallow one supported by statistical models in order to increase the quality an…
In this paper we compare two proof systems for minimal entailment: a tableau system OTAB and a sequent calculus MLK, both developed by Olivetti (1992). Our main result shows that OTAB-proofs can be efficiently translated into MLK-proofs, i.e; MLK p-simulates OTAB. The simulation is technically very involved and answers an open question posed by Olivetti (1992) on the relation between the two calculi. We also show that the two systems are exponentially separated, i.e; there are formulas which have polynomial size MLK-proofs, but require exponential-size OTAB- proofs.
In this paper we provide an alternative semantics for Equilibrium Logic and its monotonic basis, the logic of Here-and-There (also known as Gödel's G3 logic) that relies on the idea of "denotation" of a formula, that is, a function that collects the set of models of that formula. Using the three-valued logic G3 as a starting point and an ordering relation (for which equilibrium/stable models are minimal elements) we provide several elementary operations for sets of interpretations. By analysing structural properties of the denotation of formulas, we show some expressiveness results for G3 such…
Explanations for description logic (DL) entailments provide important support for the maintenance of large ontologies. The "justifications" usually employed for this purpose in ontology editors pinpoint the parts of the ontology responsible for a given entailment. Proofs for entailments make the intermediate reasoning steps explicit, and thus explain how a consequence can actually be derived. We present an interactive system for exploring description logic proofs, called Evonne, which visualizes proofs of consequences for ontologies written in expressive DLs. We describe the methods used for c…
We study logic for reasoning with if-then formulas describing dependencies between attributes of objects which are observed in consecutive points in time. We introduce semantic entailment of the formulas, show its fixed-point characterization, investigate closure properties of model classes, present an axiomatization and prove its completeness, and investigate alternative axiomatizations and normalized proofs. We investigate decidability and complexity issues of the logic and prove that the entailment problem is NP-hard and belongs to EXPSPACE. We show that by restricting to predictive formula…
University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；CAIR, South Africa（南非人工智能研究中心）；Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；ScaDS.AI – Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Dresden/Leipzig, Germany（德国德累斯顿/莱比锡可扩展数据分析与人工智能中心）
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)…
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology（卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院）；Oxford University Computing Laboratory（牛津大学计算实验室）
Description Logics are knowledge representation formalisms that provide, for example, the logical underpinning of the W3C OWL standards. Conjunctive queries, the standard query language in databases, have recently gained significant attention as an expressive formalism for querying Description Logic knowledge bases. Several different techniques for deciding conjunctive query entailment are available for a wide range of DLs. Nevertheless, the combination of nominals, inverse roles, and number restrictions in OWL 1 and OWL 2 DL causes unsolvable problems for the techniques hitherto available. We…
Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；University of Wrocław（弗罗茨瓦夫大学）
In logic-based knowledge representation, query answering has essentially replaced mere satisfiability checking as the inferencing problem of primary interest. For knowledge bases in the basic description logic ALC, the computational complexity of conjunctive query (CQ) answering is well known to be ExpTime-complete and hence not harder than satisfiability. This does not change when the logic is extended by certain features (such as counting or role hierarchies), whereas adding others (inverses, nominals or transitivity together with role-hierarchies) turns CQ answering exponentially harder. We…
Logic-based approaches to AI have the advantage that their behavior can in principle be explained to a user. If, for instance, a Description Logic reasoner derives a consequence that triggers some action of the overall system, then one can explain such an entailment by presenting a proof of the consequence in an appropriate calculus. How comprehensible such a proof is depends not only on the employed calculus, but also on the properties of the particular proof, such as its overall size, its depth, the complexity of the employed sentences and proof steps, etc. For this reason, we want to determ…
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…
We propose a graph-based extension of Boolean logic called Boolean Graph Logic (BGL). Construing formula trees as the cotrees of cographs, we may state semantic notions such as evaluation and entailment in purely graph-theoretic terms, whence we recover the definition of BGL. Naturally, it is conservative over usual Boolean logic. Our contributions are the following: (1) We give a natural semantics of BGL based on Boolean relations, i.e. it is a multivalued semantics, and show adequacy of this semantics for the corresponding notions of entailment. (2) We show that the complexity of evaluation …
We investigate array separation logic (ASL), a variant of symbolic-heap separation logic in which the data structures are either pointers or arrays, i.e., contiguous blocks of allocated memory. This logic provides a language for compositional memory safety proofs of imperative array programs. We focus on the biabduction problem for this logic, which has been established as the key to automatic specification inference at the industrial scale. We present an NP decision procedure for biabduction in ASL that produces solutions of reasonable quality, and we also show that the problem of finding a c…
On the Complexity and Properties of Preferential Propositional Dependence Logic
Artificial Intelligence Group, University of Hagen（汉内斯大学人工智能小组）；Theoretical Computer Science, Leibniz University Hannover（汉诺威莱比锡大学理论计算机科学）；Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Helsinki（赫尔辛基大学数学与统计学系）
本文研究命题依赖逻辑中的 KLM 风格偏好推理，刻画其满足 System P 的条件，分析与团队命题逻辑的差异，并给出模型表示及两种表示下的复杂性结果。
TU Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；University of Wrocław（弗罗茨瓦夫大学）
We introduce and investigate the expressive description logic (DL) ALCSCC++, in which the global and local cardinality constraints introduced in previous papers can be mixed. On the one hand, we prove that this does not increase the complexity of satisfiability checking and other standard inference problems. On the other hand, the satisfiability problem becomes undecidable if inverse roles are added to the languages. In addition, even without inverse roles, conjunctive query entailment in this DL turns out to be undecidable. We prove that decidability of querying can be regained if global and …
Stellenbosch University（斯泰伦博斯大学）；University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；Maastricht University（马斯特里赫特大学）；University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）
We extend description logics (DLs) with non-monotonic reasoning features. We start by investigating a notion of defeasible subsumption in the spirit of defeasible conditionals as studied by Kraus, Lehmann and Magidor in the propositional case. In particular, we consider a natural and intuitive semantics for defeasible subsumption, and investigate KLM-style syntactic properties for both preferential and rational subsumption. Our contribution includes two representation results linking our semantic constructions to the set of preferential and rational properties considered. Besides showing that …
We introduce Riesz Logic, whose models are abelian lattice ordered groups, which generalise Riesz spaces (vector lattices), and show soundness and completeness. Our motivation is to provide a logic for distributional semantics of natural language, where words are typically represented as elements of a vector space whose dimensions correspond to contexts in which words may occur. This basis provides a lattice ordering on the space, and this ordering may be interpreted as "distributional entailment". Several axioms of Riesz Logic are familiar from Basic Fuzzy Logic, and we show how the models of…
