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Instantiation of existentially quantified variables in inductive specification proofs

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Artificial Intelligence and Symbolic Computation (AISC 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1476))

Abstract

We present an automatic approach for instantiating existentially quantified variables in inductive specifications proofs. Our approach uses first-order meta-variables in place of existentially quantified variables and combines logical proof search with rippling techniques. We avoid the non-termination problems which usually occur in the presence of existentially quantified variables. Moreover, we are able to synthesize conditional substitutions for the meta-variables. We illustrate our approach by discussing the specification of the integer square root.

The research reported is supported by the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation with a fellowship to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, 14853-7501, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Brigitte Pientka & Christoph Kreitz

Authors
  1. Brigitte Pientka
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  2. Christoph Kreitz
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Jacques Calmet Jan Plaza

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pientka, B., Kreitz, C. (1998). Instantiation of existentially quantified variables in inductive specification proofs. In: Calmet, J., Plaza, J. (eds) Artificial Intelligence and Symbolic Computation. AISC 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1476. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0055917

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0055917

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-64960-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49816-2

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