Papers for
program verification teams
Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.
New logic semantics improve reasoning with constructive proofs
Complete Heyting Algebra Semantics for an Intuitionistic Version of Matching Logic (Extended Abstract)
Abstract: We present work in progress towards an intuitionistic version of Applicative Matching Logic. We introduce a semantics based on complete Heyting algebras, and propose a proof system which we prove to be sound relative to this semantics.
Semantics with finite contexts enable fixed points in infinite structures
Finite-Context Semantics in Finitely Supported Structures
Abstract: Semantics for systems with names and data often depends on finitely many distinguished values. The theory of finitely supported structures treats this dependence through invariance under permutations fixing a finite context. We develop this approach to semantics over arbitrary permutation groups and arbitrary infinite sets of atoms. The central difficulty is that finitely supported predicate spaces need not be complete lattices. We prove that, for predicates valued in a complete lattice with trivial atom action, every monotone finitely supported transformer nevertheless has least and greatest fixed points. These lie in the complete lattice determined by the transformer's context and coincide with the fixed points of every compatible monotone ambient extension equivariant under its stabilizer. Support-transfer bounds track dependencies through semantic constructions, while uniform finiteness yields finite convergence. For Boolean predicates, $m$ context-stabilizer orbits on the carrier suffice for convergence after at most $m$ iterations, even when the supported predicate lattice is orbit-infinite. We apply these results to automata, operational and modal semantics, abstract interpretation, and resource rewriting. Ultrahomogeneous atom structures in finite relational signatures yield finite cell representations, illustrated by an authorization monitor. The resulting account separates semantic existence, finite convergence, and effective computation.
Pointwise provable equality fails to ensure compositional consistency in arithmetic-based programs
Pointwise provable equality and the failure of composition
Abstract: Montagna (1989) and Di Paola--Montagna (1991) claim that the algebraic systems $S'$ and $S'_T$, respectively, are categories. We show that the proposed composition is not independent of the choice of representatives. For every consistent recursively enumerable extension $T$ of Peano arithmetic ($\mathrm{PA}$), we exhibit two program indices that are pointwise provably equal in $T$ but yield inequivalent composites when each is run after the same program. Montagna's $S'$ is the case $T=\mathrm{PA}$. The failure already occurs for partial maps from $ω$ to itself. Weak totality and the proposed range assignment also depend on the choice of representatives. More generally, for consistent $T\supseteq\mathrm{PA}$, pointwise provable equality is a composition congruence exactly when $T$ proves every true $Π^0_1$ sentence, in which case it is extensional equality. This completeness condition fails for every consistent recursively enumerable $T\supseteq\mathrm{PA}$ by Gödel's second incompleteness theorem. For every extension $T\supseteq\mathrm{PA}$, the least composition congruence containing pointwise provable equality is extensional equality if $T$ is $Σ^0_1$-sound and the universal relation otherwise.