Theory Exploration Powered by Deductive Synthesis

This paper presents a symbolic method for automatic theorem generation based on deductive inference. Many software verification and reasoning tasks require proving complex logical properties; coping with this complexity is generally done by declaring and proving relevant sub-properties. This gives rise to the challenge of discovering useful sub-properties that can assist the automated proof process. This is known as the theory exploration problem, and so far, predominant solutions that emerged rely on evaluation using concrete values. This limits the applicability of these theory exploration techniques to complex programs and properties.