We consider a fully SAT-based method of unbounded symbolic model checking based on computing Craig interpolants. In benchmark studies using a set of large industrial circuit verification instances, this method is greatly more efficient than BDD-based symbolic model checking, and compares favorably to some recent SAT-based model checking methods on positive instances.

Interpolation and SAT-based model checking

Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) is the problem of deciding satisfiability of a logical formula, expressed in a combination of first-order theories. We present the architecture and selected features of Boolector, which is an efficient SMT solver for the quantifier-free theories of bit-vectors and arrays. It uses term rewriting, bit-blasting to handle bit-vectors, and lemmas on demand for arrays.

/pdf/boolector-an-efficient-smt-solver-for-bit-vectors-and-arrays-135579h538.pdf

Boolector: An Efficient SMT Solver for Bit-Vectors and Arrays

Invited Lectures.- Tableau Algorithms for Description Logics.- Modality and Databases.- Local Symmetries in Propositional Logic.- Comparison.- Design and Results of TANCS-2000 Non-classical (Modal) Systems Comparison.- Consistency Testing: The RACE Experience.- Benchmark Analysis with FaCT.- MSPASS: Modal Reasoning by Translation and First-Order Resolution.- TANCS-2000 Results for DLP.- Evaluating *SAT on TANCS 2000 Benchmarks.- Research Papers.- A Labelled Tableau Calculus for Nonmonotonic (Cumulative) Consequence Relations.- A Tableau System for Godel-Dummett Logic Based on a Hypersequent Calculus.- An Analytic Calculus for Quantified Propositional Godel Logic.- A Tableau Method for Inconsistency-Adaptive Logics.- A Tableau Calculus for Integrating First-Order and Elementary Set Theory Reasoning.- Hypertableau and Path-Hypertableau Calculi for some Families of Intermediate Logics.- Variants of First-Order Modal Logics.- Complexity of Simple Dependent Bimodal Logics.- Properties of Embeddings from Int to S4.- Term-Modal Logics.- A Subset-Matching Size-Bounded Cache for Satisfiability in Modal Logics.- Dual Intuitionistic Logic Revisited.- Model Sets in a Nonconstructive Logic of Partial Terms with Definite Descriptions.- Search Space Compression in Connection Tableau Calculi Using Disjunctive Constraints.- Matrix-Based Inductive Theorem Proving.- Monotonic Preorders for Free Variable Tableaux.- The Mosaic Method for Temporal Logics.- Sequent-Like Tableau Systems with the Analytic Superformula Property for the Modal Logics KB, KDB, K5, KD5.- A Tableau Calculus for Equilibrium Entailment.- Towards Tableau-Based Decision Procedures for Non-Well-Founded Fragments of Set Theory.- Tableau Calculus for Only Knowing and Knowing At Most.- A Tableau-Like Representation Framework for Efficient Proof Reconstruction.- The Semantic Tableaux Version of the Second Incompleteness Theorem Extends Almost to Robinson's Arithmetic Q.- System Descriptions.- Redundancy-Free Lemmatization in the Automated Model-Elimination Theorem Prover AI-SETHEO.- E-SETHEO: An Automated3 Theorem Prover.

Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods: International Conference, TABLEAUX 2000 St Andrews, Scotland, UK, July 3-7, 2000 Proceedings

The DRAT-trim tool is a satisfiability proof checker based on the new DRAT proof format. Unlike its predecessor, DRUP-trim, all presently known SAT solving and preprocessing techniques can be validated using DRAT-trim. Checking time of a proof is comparable to the running time of the proof-producing solver. Memory usage is also similar to solving memory consumption, which overcomes a major hurdle of resolution-based proof checkers. The DRAT-trim tool can emit trimmed formulas, optimized proofs, and new TraceCheck + dependency graphs. We describe the output that is produced, what optimizations have been made to check RAT clauses, and potential applications of the tool.

DRAT-trim: Efficient Checking and Trimming Using Expressive Clausal Proofs

Solving QBF with counterexample guided refinement

We present DepQBF 0.1, a new search-based solver for quantified boolean formulae (QBF). It integrates compact dependency graphs to overcome the restrictions imposed by linear quantifier prefixes of QBFs in prenex conjunctive normal form (PCNF). DepQBF 0.1 was placed first in the main track of QBFEVAL’10 in a score-based ranking. We provide a general system overview and describe selected orthogonal features such as restarts and removal of learnt constraints.

/pdf/depqbf-a-dependency-aware-qbf-solver-45sfxyy2x5.pdf

DepQBF: A Dependency-Aware QBF Solver

Quantified Boolean formulas (QBF) provide a powerful framework for encoding problems from various application domains, not least because efficient QBF solvers are available. Despite sophisticated evaluation techniques, the performance of such a solver usually depends on the way a problem is represented. However, the translation to processable QBF encodings is in general not unique and may either introduce variables and clauses not relevant for the solving process or blur information which could be beneficial for the solving process. To deal with both of these issues, preprocessors have been introduced which rewrite a given QBF before it is passed to a solver.

In this paper, we present novel preprocessing methods for QBF based on blocked clause elimination (BCE), a technique successfully applied in SAT. Quantified blocked clause elimination (QBCE) allows to simulate various structural preprocessing techniques as BCE in SAT. We have implemented QBCE and extensions of QBCE in the preprocessor bloqqer. In our experiments we show that preprocessing with QBCE reduces formulas substantially and allows us to solve considerable more instances than the previous state-of-the-art.

/pdf/blocked-clause-elimination-for-qbf-crwif04oq6.pdf

Blocked clause elimination for QBF

Robustness and correctness are essential criteria for SAT and QBF solvers. We develop automated testing and debugging techniques designed and optimized for SAT and QBF solver development. Our fuzz testing techniques are able to find critical solver defects that lead to crashes, invalid satisfying assignments and incorrect satisfiability results. Moreover, we show that sequential and concurrent delta debugging techniques are highly effective in minimizing failure-inducing inputs.

/pdf/automated-testing-and-debugging-of-sat-and-qbf-solvers-56bj8ffewb.pdf

Automated testing and debugging of SAT and QBF solvers

The famous archetypical NP-complete problem of Boolean satisfiability (SAT) and its PSPACE-complete generalization of quantified Boolean satisfiability (QSAT) have become central declarative programming paradigms through which real-world instances of various computationally hard problems can be efficiently solved. This success has been achieved through several breakthroughs in practical implementations of decision procedures for SAT and QSAT, that is, in SAT and QSAT solvers. Here, simplification techniques for conjunctive normal form (CNF) for SAT and for prenex conjunctive normal form (PCNF) for QSAT--the standard input formats of SAT and QSAT solvers--have recently proven very effective in increasing solver efficiency when applied before (i.e., in preprocessing) or during (i.e., in inprocessing) satisfiability search.

In this article, we develop and analyze clause elimination procedures for pre- and inprocessing. Clause elimination procedures form a family of (P)CNF formula simplification techniques which remove clauses that have specific (in practice polynomial-time) redundancy properties while maintaining the satisfiability status of the formulas. Extending known procedures such as tautology, subsumption, and blocked clause elimination, we introduce novel elimination procedures based on asymmetric variants of these techniques, and also develop a novel family of so-called covered clause elimination procedures, as well as natural liftings of the CNF-level procedures to PCNF. We analyze the considered clause elimination procedures from various perspectives. Furthermore, for the variants not preserving logical equivalence under clause elimination, we show how to reconstruct solutions to original CNFs from satisfying assignments to simplified CNFs, which is important for practical applications for the procedures. Complementing the more theoretical analysis, we present results on an empirical evaluation on the practical importance of the clause elimination procedures in terms of the effect on solver runtimes on standard real-world application benchmarks. It turns out that the importance of applying the clause elimination procedures developed in this work is empirically emphasized in the context of state-of-the-art QSAT solving.

/pdf/clause-elimination-for-sat-and-qsat-12eghyygnb.pdf

Clause elimination for SAT and QSAT

Strategies (and certificates) for quantified Boolean formulas (QBFs) are of high practical relevance as they facilitate the verification of results returned by QBF solvers and the generation of solutions to problems formulated as QBFs. State of the art approaches to obtain strategies require traversing a Q-resolution proof of a QBF, which for many real-life instances is too large to handle. In this work, we consider the long-distance Q-resolution (LDQ) calculus, which allows particular tautological resolvents. We show that for a family of QBFs using the LDQ-resolution allows for exponentially shorter proofs compared to Q-resolution. We further show that an approach to strategy extraction originally presented for Q-resolution proofs can also be applied to LDQ-resolution proofs. As a practical application, we consider search-based QBF solvers which are able to learn tautological clauses based on resolution and the conflict-driven clause learning method. We prove that the resolution proofs produced by these solvers correspond to proofs in the LDQ calculus and can therefore be used as input for strategy extraction algorithms. Experimental results illustrate the potential of the LDQ calculus in search-based QBF solving.

/pdf/long-distance-resolution-proof-generation-and-strategy-284gix3lba.pdf

Florian Lonsing

Papers

DepQBF: A Dependency-Aware QBF Solver

Blocked clause elimination for QBF

Automated testing and debugging of SAT and QBF solvers

Clause elimination for SAT and QSAT

Long-Distance Resolution: Proof Generation and Strategy Extraction in Search-Based QBF Solving