Embedding of Quantified Higher-Order Nominal Modal Logic into Classical Higher-Order Logic

In this paper, we present an embedding of higher-order nominal modal logicinto classical higher-order logic, and study its automation. There exists no automated theorem prover for first-order or higher-order nominal logic at the moment, hence, this is the first automation for this kind of logic.In our work, we focus on nominal tense logic and have successfully proven some first theorems.

αCheck: A mechanized metatheory model checker

The problem of mechanically formalizing and proving metatheoretic properties of programming language calculi, type systems, operational semantics, and related formal systems has received considerable attention recently. However, the dual problem of searching for errors in such formalizations has attracted comparatively little attention. In this article, we present αCheck, a bounded model checker for metatheoretic properties of formal systems specified using nominal logic. In contrast to the current state of the art for metatheory verification, our approach is fully automatic, does not require expertise in theorem proving on the part of the user, and produces counterexamples in the case that a flaw is detected. We present two implementations of this technique, one based onnegation-as-failureand one based onnegation elimination, along with experimental results showing that these techniques are fast enough to be used interactively to debug systems as they are developed.

Completeness and Herbrand theorems for nominal logic

Nominal logic is a variant of first-order logic in which abstract syntax with names and binding is formalized in terms of two basic operations: name-swapping andfreshness. It relies on two important principles: equivariance (validity is preserved by name-swapping), and fresh name generation (“new” or fresh names can always be chosen). It is inspired by a particular class of models for abstract syntax trees involving names and binding, drawing on ideas from Fraenkel-Mostowski set theory: finite-support models in which each value can depend on only finitely many names.Although nominal logic is sound with respect to such models, it is not complete. In this paper we review nominal logic and show why finite-support models are insufficient both in theory and practice. We then identify (up to isomorphism) the class of models with respect to which nominal logic is complete: ideal-supported models in which the supports of values are elements of a proper ideal on the set of names.We also investigate an appropriate generalization of Herbrand models to nominal logic. After adjusting the syntax of nominal logic to include constants denoting names, we generalize universal theories to nominal-universal theories and prove that each such theory has an Herbrand model.