Automated theorem proving in mathematics

Abstract

TheMuscadet theorem prover is a knowledge-based system able to prove theorems in some non-trivial mathematical domains. The knowledge bases contain some general deduction strategies based onnatural deduction, mathematical knowledge and metaknowledge. Metarules build new rules, easily usable by the inference engine, from formal definitions. Mathematical knowledge may be general or specific to some particular field.Muscadet proved many theorems in set theory, mappings, relations, topology, geometry, and topological linear spaces. Some of the theorems were rather difficult.Muscadet is now intended to become an assistant for mathematicians in discrete geometry for cellular automata. In order to evaluate the difficulty of such a work, researchers were observed while proving some lemmas, andMuscadet was tested on easy ones. New methods have to be added to the knowledge base, such as reasoning by induction, but also new heuristics for splitting and reasoning by cases. It is also necessary to find good representations for some mathematical objects.