Tableau Calculus Research Articles

Proof Complexity of Modal Resolution

We investigate the proof complexity of modal resolution systems developed by Nalon and Dixon (J Algorithms 62(3–4):117–134, 2007) and Nalon et al. (in: Automated reasoning with analytic Tableaux and related methods—24th international conference, (TABLEAUX’15), pp 185–200, 2015), which form the basis of modal theorem proving (Nalon et al., in: Proceedings of the twenty-sixth international joint conference on artificial intelligence (IJCAI’17), pp 4919–4923, 2017). We complement these calculi by a new tighter variant and show that proofs can be efficiently translated between all these variants, meaning that the calculi are equivalent from a proof complexity perspective. We then develop the first lower bound technique for modal resolution using Prover–Delayer games, which can be used to establish “genuine” modal lower bounds for size of dag-like modal resolution proofs. We illustrate the technique by devising a new modal pigeonhole principle, which we demonstrate to require exponential-size proofs in modal resolution. Finally, we compare modal resolution to the modal Frege systems of Hrubeš (Ann Pure Appl Log 157(2–3):194–205, 2009) and obtain a “genuinely” modal separation.

Application of first-order logic to identify organizers and perpetrators of illegal actions in teams of a limited circle of people

There are three main families of inference algorithms in first-order logic: direct inference and its application to deductive databases and production systems; backward inference procedures and logic programming systems; theorem proving systems based on the resolution method. When solving specific problems, the most effective algorithms are those that allow you to cover all the facts and axioms and must be taken into account in the process of inference. An example is considered in which it is necessary to prove the guilt of a person in murder. On the basis of statements, a knowledge base is formed from expressions, with the help of which an expression of first-order logic is compiled and proved using direct logical inference. The proof of the reasoning obtained in direct inference using the proof tree is given. However, direct inference provides for the implementation of all admissible stages of logical inference based on all known facts. The article also considers a method based on the resolution when implementing the reverse inference, taking into account the expression obtained in the direct inference. This expression is converted into a conjunctive normal formula using the laws of Boolean algebra and is proved by the elimination of events using the conjunction operation.

A non-clausal tableau calculus for MinSat

In this paper we provide a non-clausal tableau calculus for the minimum satisfiability problem. Moreover we describe how to adapt it to some variants. Our starting point is a calculus for non-clausal maximum satisfiability problem.

Pay-as-you-go consequence-based reasoning for the description logic [formula omitted

Consequence-based (CB) reasoners combine ideas from resolution and (hyper)tableau calculi for solving key reasoning problems in Description Logics (DLs), such as ontology classification. Existing CB reasoners, however, are only capable of handling DLs without nominals (such as ALCHIQ), or DLs without disjunction (such as Horn-ALCHOIQ). In this paper, we present a consequence-based calculus for concept subsumption and classification in the DL ALCHOIQ+, which extends ALC with role hierarchies, inverse roles, number restrictions, and nominals; to the best of our knowledge, ours is the first CB calculus for an NExpTime-complete DL. By using standard transformations, our calculus extends to SROIQ, which covers all of OWL 2 DL except for datatypes. A key feature of our calculus is its pay-as-you-go behaviour: our calculus is worst-case optimal for all the well-known proper fragments of ALCHOIQ+. Furthermore, our calculus can be applied to DL reasoning problems other than subsumption and ontology classification, such as instance retrieval and realisation. We have implemented our calculus as an extension of Sequoia, a CB reasoner which previously supported ontology classification in SRIQ. We have performed an empirical evaluation of our implementation, which shows that Sequoia offers competitive performance. Although there still remains plenty of room for further optimisation, the calculus presented in this paper and its implementation provide an important addition to the repertoire of reasoning techniques and practical systems for expressive DLs.

New Tableau Characterizations for Non-clausal MaxSAT Problem

Abstract In this paper, we provide non-clausal tableau calculi for the maximum satisfiability problem and its variants. We discuss both basic calculi to characterize the problem and their modifications to reduce the proof size.

De Finettian Logics of Indicative Conditionals Part II: Proof Theory and Algebraic Semantics

In Part I of this paper, we identified and compared various schemes for trivalent truth conditions for indicative conditionals, most notably the proposals by de Finetti (1936) and Reichenbach (1935, 1944) on the one hand, and by Cooper (Inquiry, 11, 295–320, 1968) and Cantwell (Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 49, 245–260, 2008) on the other. Here we provide the proof theory for the resulting logics DF/TT and CC/TT, using tableau calculi and sequent calculi, and proving soundness and completeness results. Then we turn to the algebraic semantics, where both logics have substantive limitations: DF/TT allows for algebraic completeness, but not for the construction of a canonical model, while CC/TT fails the construction of a Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra. With these results in mind, we draw up the balance and sketch future research projects.

Regions of Force: Peirce, Frege, Carroll, and Bilateral Proof Trees

Regions of Force: Peirce, Frege, Carroll, and Bilateral Proof Trees

Many-valued tableau calculi for decision logic based on approximation regions in VPRS

Many-valued tableau calculi for decision logic based on approximation regions in VPRS

Many-valued tableau calculi for decision logic based on approximation regions in VPRS

Rough sets theory is studied to manage uncertain and inconsistent information. While the Pawlak's decision logic of rough sets is based on classical two-valued logic, this causes inconvenience for ...

Optimizing a Tableau Reasoner and Its Implementation in Prolog

One of the foremost reasoning services for knowledge bases is finding all the justifications for a query. This is useful for debugging purpose and for coping with uncertainty. Among Description Logics (DLs) reasoners, the tableau algorithm is one of the most used. However, in order to collect the justifications, the reasoners must manage the non-determinism of the tableau method. For these reasons, a Prolog implementation can facilitate the management of such non-determinism. The TRILL framework contains three probabilistic reasoners written in Prolog: TRILL, TRILL and TORNADO. Since they are all part of the same framework, the choice about which to use can be done easily via the framework settings. Each one of them uses different approaches for probabilistic inference and handles different DLs flavours. Our previous work showed that they can sometimes achieve better results than state-of-the-art (non-)probabilistic reasoners. In this paper we present two optimizations that improve the performances of the TRILL reasoners. The first one consists into identifying the fragment of the KB that allows to perform inference without losing the completeness. The second one modifies which tableau rule to apply and their order of application, in order to reduce the number of operations. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the introduced optimizations.

About the characterization of a fine line that separates generalizations and boundary-case exceptions for the Second Incompleteness Theorem under semantic tableau deduction

AbstractOur previous research showed that the semantic tableau deductive methodology of Fitting and Smullyan permits boundary-case exceptions to the second incompleteness theorem, if multiplication is viewed as a 3-way relation (rather than as a total function). It is known that tableau methodologies prove a schema of theorems verifying all instances of the law of the excluded middle. But if one promotes this schema of theorems into formalized logical axioms, then the meaning of the pronoun of ‘I’, used by our self-referencing engine, changes quite sharply. Our partial evasions of the second incompleteness theorem shall then come to a complete halt.

Bilattice Logic for Rough Sets

Rough set theory is studied to manage uncertain and inconsistent information. Because Pawlak’s decision logic for rough sets is based on the classical two-valued logic, it is inconvenient for handling inconsistent information. We propose a bilattice logic as the deduction basis for the decision logic of rough sets to address inconsistent and ambiguous information. To enhance the decision logic to bilattice semantics, we introduce Variable Precision Rough Set (VPRS). As a deductive basis for bilattice decision logic, we define a consequence relation for Belnap’s four-valued semantics and provide a bilattice semantic tableau TB4 for a deduction system. We demonstrate the soundness and completeness of TB4 and enhance it with weak negation.

A clock-based dynamic logic for schedulability analysis of CCSL specifications

The Clock Constraint Specification Language (CCSL) is a clock-based formalism for the specification and analysis of real-time embedded systems. The major goal of schedulability analysis of CCSL specifications is to solve the schedule problem, which is to answer ‘whether there exists a clock behaviour (also called a ‘schedule’) that conforms to a given CCSL specification'. Existing works on schedulability analysis of CCSL specifications are mainly based on model checking or SMT-solving. In this paper, however, we propose a theorem-proving approach to the problem. To this end, we define a clock-based dynamic logic (cDL) in which we can specify the clock behaviours and the clock relations in CCSL. With cDL, given a CCSL specification SP , we can express its schedule problem as a cDL formula ϕ s p . Then solving the schedule problem is equivalent to checking the validity of ϕ s p in the proof system of cDL. By analyzing the proof tree of ϕ s p , we can generate a concrete schedule satisfying SP . Compared to the previous approaches, our method is not limited to special types of CCSL specifications and schedules and does not depend on the bounds that are set for approximate checking. We implement our cDL in Coq. We use an example throughout the paper to illustrate our method. • A dynamic logic to characterize logical clocked systems. • A proof system for schedulability analysis of clock specifications. • An algorithm for generating infinite schedules in clock systems. • A general analysis method that is based on complete theorem proving and avoids approximate checking and bound setting.

A navigational logic for reasoning about graph properties

Graphs play an important role in many areas of Computer Science. In particular, our work is motivated by model-driven software development and by graph databases. For this reason, it is very important to have the means to express and to reason about the properties that a given graph may satisfy. With this aim, in this paper we present a visual logic that allows us to describe graph properties, including navigational properties, i.e., properties about the paths in a graph. The logic is equipped with a deductive tableau method that we have proved to be sound and complete.

Machine Learning Guidance for Connection Tableaux

Connection calculi allow for very compact implementations of goal-directed proof search. We give an overview of our work related to connection tableaux calculi: first, we show optimised functional implementations of connection tableaux proof search, including a consistent Skolemisation procedure for machine learning. Then, we show two guidance methods based on machine learning, namely reordering of proof steps with Naive Bayesian probabilities, and expansion of a proof search tree with Monte Carlo Tree Search.

Debugging Large-scale Datalog

Logic programming languages such as Datalog have become popular as Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) for solving large-scale, real-world problems, in particular, static program analysis and network analysis. The logic specifications that model analysis problems process millions of tuples of data and contain hundreds of highly recursive rules. As a result, they are notoriously difficult to debug. While the database community has proposed several data provenance techniques that address the Declarative Debugging Challenge for Databases, in the cases of analysis problems, these state-of-the-art techniques do not scale. In this article, we introduce a novel bottom-up Datalog evaluation strategy for debugging: Our provenance evaluation strategy relies on a new provenance lattice that includes proof annotations and a new fixed-point semantics for semi-naïve evaluation. A debugging query mechanism allows arbitrary provenance queries, constructing partial proof trees of tuples with minimal height. We integrate our technique into Soufflé, a Datalog engine that synthesizes C++ code, and achieve high performance by using specialized parallel data structures. Experiments are conducted with D OOP /DaCapo, producing proof annotations for tens of millions of output tuples. We show that our method has a runtime overhead of 1.31× on average while being more flexible than existing state-of-the-art techniques.

Non-distributive Relatives of ETL and NFL

In this paper we devise non-distributive relatives of Exactly true logic (ETL) by Pietz and Riveccio and its dual Non-falsity logic (NFL) by Shramko, Zaitsev and Belikov. We consider two pre-orders which are algebraic counterparts of the ETL’s and NFL’s entailment relations on the de Morgan lattice 4. We generalise these pre-orders and determine which distributive properties that hold on 4 are not forced by either of the pre-orders. We then construct relatives of ETL and NFL but lack such distributive properties. For these logics we also devise a truth table semantics which uses non-distributive lattice M3 as their lattice of truth values. We also provide analytic tableaux systems which work with sequents of the form $$\phi \vdash \chi $$. We then prove correctness and completeness results for these proof systems and provide a neat generalisation for non-distributive ETL- and NFL-like logics built over a certain family of non-distributive modular lattices.

Branching-time logic [formula omitted] and its tree-style one-pass tableau: Extending fairness expressibility of [formula omitted

Temporal logic has become essential for various areas in computer science, most notably for the specification and verification of hardware and software systems. For the specification purposes rich temporal languages are required that, in particular, can express fairness constraints. For linear-time logics which deal with fairness in the linear-time setting, one-pass and two-pass tableau methods have been developed. In the repository of the CTL-type branching-time setting, the well-known logics ECTL and ECTL+ were developed to explicitly deal with fairness. However, due to the syntactical restrictions, these logics can only express restricted versions of fairness. The logic CTL⋆, often considered as ‘the full branching-time logic’ overcomes these restrictions on expressing fairness. However, CTL⋆ is extremely challenging for the application of verification techniques, and the tableau technique, in particular. For example, there is no one-pass tableau construction for CTL⋆, while one-pass tableau has an additional benefit enabling the formulation of dual sequent calculi that are often treated as more ‘natural’ being more friendly for human understanding. These two considerations lead to the following problem - are there logics that have richer expressiveness than ECTL+, allowing the formulation of a new range of fairness constraints with ‘until’ operator, yet ‘simpler’ than CTL⋆, and for which a one-pass tableau can be developed? Here we give a positive answer to this question, introducing a sub-logic of CTL⋆ called ECTL#, its tree-style one-pass tableau, and an algorithm for obtaining a systematic tableau, for any given admissible branching-time formulae. We prove the termination, soundness and completeness of the method. As tree-shaped one-pass tableaux are well suited for the automation and are amenable for the implementation and for the formulation of sequent calculi. Our results also open a prospect of relevant developments of the automation and implementation of the tableau method for ECTL#, and of a dual sequent calculi.

Clause tableaux for maximum and minimum satisfiability

Abstract The inference systems proposed for solving SAT are unsound for solving MaxSAT and MinSAT, because they preserve satisfiability but not the minimum and maximum number of clauses that can be falsified, respectively. To address this problem, we first define a clause tableau calculus for MaxSAT and prove its soundness and completeness. We then define a clause tableau calculus for MinSAT and also prove its soundness and completeness. Finally, we define a complete clause tableau calculus for solving both MaxSAT and MinSAT, in that the minimum number of generated empty clauses provides an optimal MaxSAT solution and the maximum number provides an optimal MinSAT solution.

Semantic Tableau Versions of Some Normal Modal Systems with Propositional Quantifiers.

In Symbolic Logic (1932), C. I. Lewis developed five modal systems S1 - S5. S4 and S5 arc so-called normal modal systems. Since Lewis and La.ngford's pioneering work many other systems of this kind ...