Yutaka Nagashima, Daniel Sebastian Goc
Proof assistants based on expressive logics suffer limited automation for proof search, raising the cost of formal verification based on proof assistants. We address this problem by introducing the Abduction Prover for Isabelle/HOL. Given a challenging proof goal, the Abduction Prover constructs a proof script for the goal by identifying useful conjectures using abductive reasoning.
Yutaka Nagashima
A deductive program synthesis tool takes a specification as input and derives a program that satisfies the specification. The drawback of this approach is that search spaces for such correct programs tend to be enormous, making it difficult to derive correct programs within a realistic timeout. To speed up such program derivation, we improve the search strategy of a deductive program synthesis tool, SuSLik, using evolutionary computation. Our cross-validation shows that the improvement brought by evolutionary computation generalises to unforeseen problems.
Yutaka Nagashima
Proof assistants offer tactics to apply proof by induction, but these tactics rely on inputs given by human engineers. To automate this laborious process, we developed SeLFiE, a boolean query language to represent experienced users' knowledge on how to apply the induct tactic in Isabelle/HOL: when we apply an induction heuristic written in SeLFiE to an inductive problem and arguments to the induct tactic, the SeLFiE interpreter judges whether the arguments are plausible for that problem according to the heuristic by examining both the syntactic structure of the problem and definitions of the relevant constants. To examine the intricate interaction between syntactic analysis and analysis of constant definitions, we introduce definitional quantifiers. For evaluation we build an automatic induction prover using SeLFiE. Our evaluation based on 347 inductive problems shows that our new prover achieves 1.4 x 10^3% improvement over the corresponding baseline prover for 1.0 second of timeout and the median value of speedup is 4.48x.
Yutaka Nagashima
Proof by induction plays a critical role in formal verification and mathematics at large. However, its automation remains as one of the long-standing challenges in Computer Science. To address this problem, we developed sem_ind. Given inductive problem, sem_ind recommends what arguments to pass to the induct method. To improve the accuracy of sem_ind, we introduced definitional quantifiers, a new kind of quantifiers that allow us to investigate not only the syntactic structures of inductive problems but also the definitions of relevant constants in a domain-agnostic style. Our evaluation shows that compared to its predecessor sem_ind improves the accuracy of recommendation from 20.1% to 38.2% for the most promising candidates within 5.0 seconds of timeout while decreasing the median value of execution time from 2.79 seconds to 1.06 seconds.
Yutaka Nagashima
Inductive theorem proving is an important long-standing challenge in computer science. In this extended abstract, we first summarize the recent developments of proof by induction for Isabelle/HOL. Then, we propose united reasoning, a novel approach to further automating inductive theorem proving. Upon success, united reasoning takes the best of three schools of reasoning: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning, to prove difficult inductive problems automatically.
Yutaka Nagashima
Recently, a growing number of researchers have applied machine learning to assist users of interactive theorem provers. However, the expressive nature of underlying logics and esoteric structures of proof documents impede machine learning practitioners, who often do not have much expertise in formal logic, let alone Isabelle/HOL, from achieving a large scale success in this field. In this data description, we present a simple dataset that contains data on over 400k proof method applications along with over 100 extracted features for each in a format that can be processed easily without any knowledge about formal logic. Our simple data format allows machine learning practitioners to try machine learning tools to predict proof methods in Isabelle/HOL without requiring domain expertise in logic.
Yutaka Nagashima
Proof assistants offer tactics to facilitate inductive proofs. However, it still requires human ingenuity to decide what arguments to pass to those induction tactics. To automate this process, we present smart_induct for Isabelle/HOL. Given an inductive problem in any problem domain, smart_induct lists promising arguments for the induct tactic without relying on a search. Our evaluation demonstrated smart_induct produces valuable recommendations across problem domains.
Yutaka Nagashima
"Theorem proving is similar to the game of Go. So, we can probably improve our provers using deep learning, like DeepMind built the super-human computer Go program, AlphaGo." Such optimism has been observed among participants of AITP2017. But is theorem proving really similar to Go? In this paper, we first identify the similarities and differences between them and then propose a system in which various provers keep competing against each other and changing themselves until they prove conjectures provided by users.
Yutaka Nagashima
Mechanized theorem proving is becoming the basis of reliable systems programming and rigorous mathematics. Despite decades of progress in proof automation, writing mechanized proofs still requires engineers' expertise and remains labor intensive. Recently, researchers have extracted heuristics of interactive proof development from existing large proof corpora using supervised learning. However, such existing proof corpora present only one way of proving conjectures, while there are often multiple equivalently effective ways to prove one conjecture. In this abstract, we identify challenges in discovering heuristics for automatic proof search and propose our novel approach to improve heuristics of automatic proof search in Isabelle/HOL using evolutionary computation.
Yutaka Nagashima
Induction lies at the heart of mathematics and computer science. However, automated theorem proving of inductive problems is still limited in its power. In this abstract, we first summarize our progress in automating inductive theorem proving for Isabelle/HOL. Then, we present MeLoId, our approach to suggesting promising applications of induction without completing a proof search.
Yutaka Nagashima, Yilun He
Deciding which sub-tool to use for a given proof state requires expertise specific to each ITP. To mitigate this problem, we present PaMpeR, a Proof Method Recommendation system for Isabelle/HOL. Given a proof state, PaMpeR recommends proof methods to discharge the proof goal and provides qualitative explanations as to why it suggests these methods. PaMpeR generates these recommendations based on existing hand-written proof corpora, thus transferring experienced users' expertise to new users. Our evaluation shows that PaMpeR correctly predicts experienced users' proof methods invocation especially when it comes to special purpose proof methods.
Yutaka Nagashima
Despite the recent progress in automatic theorem provers, proof engineers are still suffering from the lack of powerful proof automation. In this position paper we first report our proof strategy language based on a meta-tool approach. Then, we propose an AI-based approach to drastically improve proof automation for Isabelle, while identifying three major challenges we plan to address for this objective.