Proof by consistency

Reprint of: A more general general proof theory

The author studies the higher-order rewrite/equational proof systems obtained by adding the simply typed lambda calculus to algebraic rewrite/equational proof systems. He shows that if a many-sorted algebraic rewrite system has the Church-Rosser property, then the corresponding higher-order rewrite system which adds simply typed beta -reduction has the Church-Rossers property too. This result is relevant to parallel implementations of functional programming languages. The author also shows that provability in the higher-order equational proof system obtained by adding the simply typed beta and eta axions to some many-sorted algebraic proof system is effectively reducible to provability in that algebraic proof system. This effective reduction also establishes transformations between higher-order and algebraic equational proofs, which can be useful in automated deduction.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

We introduce new proof systems for propositional logic, simple deduction Frege systems, general deduction Frege systems, and nested deduction Frege systems, which augment Frege systems with variants of the deduction rule. We give upper bounds on the lengths of proofs in Frege proof systems compared to lengths in these new systems. As applications we give near-linear simulations of the propositional Gentzen sequent calculus and the natural deduction calculus by Frege proofs. The length of a proof is the number of lines (or formulas) in the proof.A general deduction Frege proof system provides at most quadratic speedup over Frege proof systems. A nested deduction Frege proof system provides at most a nearly linear speedup over Frege system where by “nearly linear” is meant the ratio of proof lengths is O(α(n)) where α is the inverse Ackermann function. A nested deduction Frege system can linearly simulate the propositional sequent calculus, the tree-like general deduction Frege calculus, and the natural deduction calculus. Hence a Frege proof system can simulate all those proof systems with proof lengths bounded by O(n . α(n)). Also we show that a Frege proof of n lines can be transformed into a tree-like Frege proof of O(n log n) lines and of height O(log n). As a corollary of this fact we can prove that natural deduction and sequent calculus tree-like systems simulate Frege systems with proof lengths bounded by O(n log n).

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in studying proof systems stronger than Resolution, with the aim of building more efficient SAT solvers based on them. In defining these proof systems, we try to find a balance between the power of the proof system (the size of the proofs required to refute a formula) and the difficulty of finding the proofs. In this paper we consider the proof systems circular Resolution, Sherali-Adams, Nullstellensatz and Weighted Resolution and we study their relative power from a theoretical perspective. We prove that circular Resolution, Sherali-Adams and Weighted Resolution are polynomially equivalent proof systems. We also prove that Nullstellensatz is polynomially equivalent to a restricted version of Weighted Resolution. The equivalences carry on also for versions of the systems where the coefficients/weights are expressed in unary. The practical interest in these systems comes from the fact that they admit efficient algorithms to find proofs in case these have small width/degree.

Reachability Logic is a formalism that can be used, among others, for expressing partial-correctness properties of transition systems. In this paper we present three proof systems for this formalism, all of which are sound and complete and inherit the coinductive nature of the logic. The proof systems differ, however, in several aspects. First, they use induction and coinduction in different proportions. The second aspect regards compositionality, broadly meaning their ability to prove simpler formulas on smaller systems, and to reuse those formulas as lemmas for more complex formulas on larger systems. The third aspect is the difficulty of their soundness proofs. We show that the more induction a proof system uses, and the more specialised is its use of coinduction (with respect to our problem domain), the more compositional the proof system is, but the more difficult its soundness proof becomes. We also briefly present mechanisations of these results in the Isabelle/HOL and Coq proof assistants.

We show new lower bounds and impossibility results for general (possibly non-black-box) zero-knowledge proofs and arguments. Our main results are that, under reasonable complexity assumptions: 1. There does not exist a constant-round zero-knowledge strong proof (or argument) of knowledge (as defined by Goldreich, 2001) for a nontrivial language; 2. There does not exist a two-round zero-knowledge proof system with perfect completeness for an NP-complete language; 3. There does not exist a constant-round public-coin proof system for a nontrivial language that is resettable zero knowledge. This result also extends to bounded resettable zero knowledge. In contrast, we show that under reasonable assumptions, there does exist such a (computationally sound) argument system that is bounded-resettable zero knowledge.

There are several quite distinct approaches to the Completeness Theorem, corresponding to the ways of thinking about proofs. Within each of the approaches there are endless variations in exact formulation, corresponding to the choice of methods we want to use to proof the Completeness Theorem. Different basic approaches are important, though, for they lead to different applications. We have presented two of the approaches for the propositional logic: Hilbert style formalizations (proof systems) in Chap. 5, and Gentzen style formalizations (automated proof systems) in Chap. 6 We have also presented for each of the approaches methods of proving the completeness theorem. Two proofs of completeness theorem for Hilbert style proof system in Chap. 5 and a constructive proofs for several Gentzen style proof systems in Chap. 6

We relate different approaches for proving the unsatisfiability of a system of real polynomial equations over Boolean variables. On the one hand, there are the static proof systems Sherali-Adams and sum-of-squares (a.k.a. Lasserre), which are based on linear and semi-definite programming relaxations. On the other hand, we consider polynomial calculus, which is a dynamic algebraic proof system that models Gröbner basis computations. Our first result is that sum-of-squares simulates polynomial calculus: any polynomial calculus refutation of degree d can be transformed into a sum-of-squares refutation of degree 2d and only polynomial increase in size. In contrast, our second result shows that this is not the case for Sherali-Adams: there are systems of polynomial equations that have polynomial calculus refutations of degree 3 and polynomial size, but require Sherali-Adams refutations of large degree and exponential size. A corollary of our first result is that the proof systems Positivstellensatz and Positivstellensatz Calculus, which have been separated over non-Boolean polynomials, simulate each other in the presence of Boolean axioms.

In this paper, we define sufficient conditions for the solvability in quadratures of systems of linear ordinary differential equations of higher orders with variable coefficients. The method of variation of constants for equations of higher orders and for systems of equations of first order is generalized to the case of such systems. Results are obtained by reducing the systems under consideration to matrix equations of higher orders studied by methods of the theory of Lie algebras.

Automated induction is a powerful method for the validation of critical systems. However, the inductive proof process faces major challenges: it is undecidable and diverges even with small examples. Previous methods have proposed ad-hoc heuristics to speculate on additional lemmas that hopefully stop the divergence. Although these methods have succeeded in proving interesting theorems, they have significant limitations: in particular, they often fail to find appropriate lemmas, and the lemmas they provide may not be valid. We present a new method that allows us to perform inductive proofs in conditional theories. This method automatically detects divergence in proof traces and derives primal grammars as well as new lemmas that schematize the divergent sequence. This new construction allows us to break the divergence and complete the proof. Our method is presented as a set of inference rules whose soundness and refutational completeness have been formally proved. Unlike previous methods, our method is fully automated and has no risk of over-generalization. Moreover, our technique for capturing and schematizing divergence represents the most general decidable schematization, with respect to description power, among all known schematizations. Our method has been implemented in C++ and successfully proved over fifty complex examples that fail with well-known theorem provers (e.g., ACL2, Isabelle, PVS, SPIKE) and related methods for handling divergence in proofs by induction. Our method represents a significant contribution to the field of automated reasoning as it can be integrated with existing automated and interactive inductive proof systems to enhance their performance. Moreover, it has the potential to substantially reduce the time needed for the verification of critical systems.

A methodology for developing sound proof systems for program verification is demonstrated by the development of a proof system for reasoning about concurrent programs based on the unity logic of K.M. Chandy and J. Misra (1988). This proof system has been validated by an automated theorem prover, a computer program that checks the correctness of proofs. The Boyer-Moore logic in which the proof system is formalized and the Boyer-Moore theorem prover which mechanizes this logic are described. The motivation behind the unity logic and the way in which it may be used to prove the correctness of concurrent programs are examined. A proof system for concurrent programs based on the unity logic system is provided as an example. An operational semantics of concurrency is formalized in Boyer-Moore logic by use of the transition system model. Unity's proof rules are proved as theorems about this operational semantics. The proofs of these theorems are mechanically checked. The entire proof system has been verified by the Boyer-Moore prover, making it possible to prove mechanically the consequence of other concurrent programs.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

In this thesis we investigate the existence of solutions to boundary value problems (BVPs) for nonlinear systems of first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and difference equations. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part one is devoted to the study of difference equations where two types of problems are studied. First, we derive the existence of solutions to first-order systems of difference equations that arise when one applies the trapezoidal rule to approximate solutions of second-order scalar ODEs. Strict discrete lower solutions are used with maximum principle arguments in the discrete problem to obtain a priori bounds on solutions. The a priori bounds on difference quotients for solutions of the discrete problem are obtained from the Bernstein-Nagumo condition. We use homototopy to find solutions of the discrete amroximations. Second, motivated by Ma [60] we consider existence and uniqueness of solutions to difference equations which arise as discrete approximations to three-point BVPs for systems of first-order ODES after employing the Euler method. Several existence and uniqueness results for three-point BVPs are established, using the contraction mapping theorem and the Brouwer fixed point theorem in Rn. In part two, two types of problems for systems of first-order ODES are analyzed. First, we study the existence of a unique solution to a system of first-order differentia1 equations under multi-point BVPs with nonlinear boundary conditions. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions for a system of first-order three-point BVP under which the properties of linear three-point BVP are preserved under small nonlinear perturbations of both the differentia1 equation and the boundary conditions. The method of proof of the existence of solutions using the Banach contraction mapping principle is similar to that used by Rodriguez [75], who studied the discrete analogue of this BVP. Second, motivated by Cronin 120,211 we investigate the existence of solutions to three-point BVPs in perturbed systems of first-order ODEs at resonance where the associated homogeneous linear problem has nontrivial solutions. Based on the second part of the investigation of three-point BVPs in perturbed systems of first-order ODEs at resonance, four different results were obtained: (i) The existence of solutions via a version of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem which is due to Miranda. (ii) The existence of solutions to the problem through the application of the Implicit Function Theorem. These two results extend the work of Feng and Webb [34], and Gupta [39] for the problems at resonance in Euclidean 2-space. (iii) Existence results for three-point BVPs at resonance for general BVPs through the application of Brouwer degree theory; we show the degree is non zero through the application of Borsuk's Theorem for one problem and through a result of Cronin involving pairs of polynomials in two variables whose terms of highest order have no common factors. (iv) The existence of solutions to the entrainment of frequency problem in Euclidean 2-space. We will investigate conditions under which entrainment of frequency for three-point as well as two-point BVPs by adapting the work of Cronin in periodic case. We will describe such conditions and then show the degree is non zero through a result of Cronin involving pairs of polynomials in two variables whose terms of lowest order have no common factors.

The method of order completion provides a general and type‐independent theory for the existence and basic regularity of the solutions of large classes of systems of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Recently, the application of convergence spaces to this theory resulted in a significant improvement upon the regularity of the solutions and provided new insight into the structure of solutions. In this paper, we show how this method may be adapted so as to allow for the infinite differentiability of generalized functions. Moreover, it is shown that a large class of smooth nonlinear PDEs admit generalized solutions in the space constructed here. As an indication of how the general theory can be applied to particular nonlinear equations, we construct generalized solutions of the parametrically driven, damped nonlinear Schrödinger equation in one spatial dimension.

Theorem proving procedures for the propositional calculus have traditionally relied on syntactic manipulations of the formula to derive a proof. In particular, clausal theorem provers sometimes lose some of the obvious semantics present in the theorem, in the process of converting the theorem into an unnatural normal form. Most existing propositional theorem provers do not incorporate substitution of equals for equals as an inference rule. In this paper we develop a “natural” proof system for the propositional calculus, with the goal that most succinct mathematical proofs should be encodable as short formal proofs within the proof system. The main distinctive features of NPS are: We show that from a complexity theoretic viewpoint NPS is at least as powerful as the resolution procedure. We further demonstrate formulas on which NPS fares better than resolution. Finally, since proofs in NPS usually resemble manual proofs, we feel that NPS is easily amenable to an interactive theorem prover.

This paper presents a sound and complete logical system whose atomic sentences are the equalities of recursive terms involving sets. There are two interpretations of this language: one makes use of non-wellfounded sets with finite transitive closure, and the other uses pointed finite graphs modulo bisimulation. Our logical system is a sequent-style deduction system. The main axioms and inference rules come from the $\mbox{{\it FLR}$_0$}$ -proof system from [6], including the Recursion Inference Rule (but an additional axiom is needed), and also axioms corresponding to the extensionality axiom of set theory.