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Computer Science Logic in Computer Science

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Thursday 3 September

Logic in Computer Science

The Stochastic Target Discounted-Sum Problem

The target discounted-sum problem (TDS) asks, given a finite integer alphabet $\Sigma$, a rational discount factor $\lambda$, and a rational target $t$, whether some infinite sequence over $\Sigma$ has discounted sum exactly $t$. This problem remains open and underlies several open questions in automata theory, games, and Markov decision processes. We introduce and solve its stochastic counterpart, the stochastic target discounted-sum problem, which replaces existence by computation of the probability. We show that the probability that a random sequence generated by a finite Markov chain has discounted sum $t$ is rational and computable in pseudo-polynomial time. We further show how to decide, in polynomial time, whether the discounted-sum distribution of a Markov chain is atomless, and how to approximate to an arbitrary precision the probability that the discounted sum exceeds a rational threshold. Our techniques for the stochastic TDS problem allow us to make progress on TDS objectives in stochastic games, which are known to be as hard as the TDS problem. Restricting the maximizing player to finite-memory strategies, while allowing the minimizing player to use arbitrary strategies, we reduce the value problem and the synthesis problem to corresponding problems for safety objectives in stochastic games. This yields computable optimal values and deterministic optimal strategies with pseudo-polynomially bounded memory for stochastic games, and results in pseudo-polynomial-time algorithms for special cases of Markov decision processes and deterministic two-player games.
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All authors Nathalie Bertrand, Pranav Ghorpade, Senthil Rajasekaran, Sasha Rubin, Moshe Y. Vardi

Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

AutoGraphForge: Towards Automated Graph Theory Discovery

We report on our ongoing project to develop a computational pipeline, AutoGraphForge, for an automated graph-theoretic conjecturing-refuting-formalizing-proving system. Conjecture generation is counterexample-guided and runs in rounds: a Graffiti3 generator proposes conjectures over a small, evolving snapshot table $T$ (initially a few hundred graphs with their computed invariants) that grows only by counterexamples to its own conjectures. A novelty filter of $559$ classical and folklore relations, closed under transitive composition and linear identity substitution, decides via a linear program whether a candidate is already implied by known results. Surviving candidates are tested against a dataset of about $348,000$ graphs, unioning the complete House of Graphs invariant export, the exhaustive census of all connected graphs on at most nine vertices, several extremal families (strongly regular, minimal Ramsey, Cayley, cages, barbells, lollipops, spiders), and random models. Counterexample-search algorithms then attack the remainder. Run for several rounds on an HPC cluster, the loop yields $6,522$ conjectures that survived the refutation dataset, the novelty filter and every active-search run – among them nontrivial relations between the annihilation number and the edge-cover number for bipartite and regular graphs, which we prove by hand. A subsequent formalization and proving stage deterministically translates each surviving conjecture into a Lean 4 statement skeleton; every candidate proof is kernel-verified against a pinned mathlib4 and our custom invariant preamble. This stage integrates two neural provers – DeepSeek-Prover-V2-671B (served with vLLM) and the Lean-specialised OProver-32B – behind the independent kernel check. It is implemented end-to-end and passes initial sanity checks, with the full pipeline currently running on the cluster.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.CT

Override and Update in Restriction Categories

We study the override and update operators on partial functions from the perspective of restriction categories. We propose a definition of override restriction categories, in which both of the operators in question exist. We prove a number of results concerning these operators and their relationship to the structure of the ambient restriction category, as well as relating them to the existing literature on the override and update operators. We provide various examples of override restriction categories and in particular show that every classical restriction category is an override restriction category.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.CL

Accountable AI with Grounded, Faithful, Consistent, Actionable Rationales: A Case Study in Clinical Trial Matching with VERDICT

Accountability means a decision can be examined, justified, and contested. LLMs make this hard: fluent output may be ungrounded, incomplete, or unfaithful to the decision process. Achieving accountability requires verified rationales (how was the decision reached), assumptions (what was assumed rather than known), policy consistency (the same treatment for the same facts), and pivotal conditions (what would change the outcome). We introduce self-faithfulness as an automatic test of accountability: changing the pivotal conditions should change the decision. We examine accountable AI through clinical trial matching, a high-stakes task central to evidence-based medicine. Although LLM-based matchers match patients to trials reasonably accurately, they apply decision policies inconsistently and produce rationales that are unfaithful to their own decisions. We introduce VERDICT, an LLM-based agent that translates a decision task, its constraints, and its policy into Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT), then derives the decision with SMT and MaxSMT solvers – so policies are applied consistently and decisions are accountable by construction. Across a SIGIR 2016-derived dataset and TREC 2021, VERDICT achieves the strongest decision accuracy among LLM-only and neurosymbolic baselines, applies policies with perfect consistency, and produces clinician-preferred rationales grounded in explicit assumptions and pivotal conditions, with improved counterfactual self-faithfulness.
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All authors Zikai Zhou, Yufei Jin, Yilin Xu, Yu-Chiang Wang, Chieh-Ju Chao, Monica S. Lam

Wednesday 2 September

Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.DB

Corporate-Family Resolution Is Not a String-Matching Problem: A Public Benchmark Stratified by Name Visibility

Deciding whether two supplier records belong to the same corporate family is a prerequisite for spend consolidation, credit exposure aggregation and sanctions screening. It is usually treated as entity matching, but the tasks differ: a family link connects records that are deliberately different entities, and the evidence often appears in neither record. We introduce CorpFam, a public benchmark of 54,864 candidate pairs over 10,307 corporate families, derived from 6,638,350 US federal award records in which every supplier self-reports its ultimate parent to a government registry. Pairs are stratified by name visibility: whether the names are identical after normalisation, share a distinctive token, or share none. Because strata have positive rates from 10.2% to 97.3%, we report per-stratum recall, base-rate invariant, rather than F1, which is not. The strongest of 5 matchers recovers 100.0% of identical pairs and 4.2% of invisible ones; no method exceeds 4.7% on the latter. The failure begins before matching. Blocking decides which pairs a matcher sees, and we evaluate 7 schemes spanning phonetic keys, attribute keys that ignore the name, and semantic nearest neighbours. None reaches three percent on invisible pairs, and their union recovers 6.8%. 93.2% of these links never enter the candidate set, so no matching-stage improvement can reach them. The links are real: against SEC Exhibit 21 subsidiary schedules, which share no provenance with procurement registration, 64.2% of invisible links are corroborated, against 0.16% under permuted parents and 0.41% against the same parent's wrong exhibit: two unrelated nulls agreeing to within 0.25 points. Corporate-family resolution is a retrieval problem misfiled as a matching problem; the intervention point is candidate generation, not ranking. The benchmark, adjudication log, and code reproducing every number are released.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.NT

Skolem-Mahler-Lech in rings of positive characteristic: a shorter proof and a multi-dimensional generalization

Let $R$ be a commutative ring and $f(a_1, \ldots, a_n) = \sum_{i=1}^k r_{i1}^{a_1} \cdots r_{in}^{a_n} m_i$ be a linear-exponential map over an $R$-module $M$. Dong and Shafrir (2026) showed that, when $\ell M = 0$ for some $\ell \in \mathbb{N}_{>0}$, the zero set of $f$ is the intersection of effectively computable $p$-normal sets, where $p$ ranges over the prime divisors of $\ell$. This generalizes an earlier theorem of Derksen and Masser (2012) on the solution set of $S$-unit equations over fields of positive characteristic. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we give a shorter proof of Dong and Shafrir's result, using the theorem of Derksen-Masser as a blackbox. Our proof also yields a decomposition of the zero set as a positive Boolean combination of affine transformations of zero sets of linear-exponential equations over fields. Second, we prove a multi-dimensional generalization of the Skolem-Mahler-Lech theorem over rings of finite characteristic. Specifically, we show that the zero set of every $n$-dimensional linear recurrence sequence over an $R$-module $M$ satisfying $\ell M = 0$ is the intersection of effectively computable $p$-normal sets (in $\mathbb{N}^n$), where $p$ ranges over the prime divisors of $\ell$. For example, this gives a decision procedure for whether two classical linear recurrence sequences have a common value over a ring of characteristic $p^a$ or $p^a q^b$, where $p$ and $q$ are primes.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.PL

Causal Probabilistic Programming via Magmadic Do-Notation

We introduce a do-notation metalanguage for causal probabilistic programming. The metalanguage is based on magmads: non-associative monads. We derive causal probabilistic programming constructs from non-associativity and the primitives of probabilistic programming.

Logic in Computer Science

Intuitionistic Unitary Linear Logic: A Proof-Theoretical Approach to Purely Quantum Higher-Order

Although the circuit model for quantum computation is well established, it is incapable of representing non-causal higher-order quantum processes such as the quantum switch. If several models of non-causal quantum computation have been considered in the literature, the approaches have so far only been focusing on the physicality of such processes, using matrices and other techniques from linear algebra. If these approaches are expressive, they however only provide a static and monolithic understanding of these processes. In this article, we propose a new formalism for non-causal, higher-order quantum processes. Based on a Curry-Howard interpetation, our proposal offers a computational interpretation that is both compositional and modular. In particular, we present Intuitionistic Unitary Linear Logic (IULL), a logic based on linear logic focusing on conservation of unitarity for higher order terms. We prove the coherence of IULLL, its completeness with regard to unitaries, and the admissibility of its cut rules. We finally discuss the validity of our approach by revisiting known non-causal quantum processes with IULL.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.GN

Metrization of Quasi-Uniformities, Powerset Monads, and Qualitative Robustness Analysis

We study the relationship between quasi-uniform spaces, topological spaces, and quantale-valued metric spaces. Our main result is a metrization theorem establishing an equivalence between the category of quasi-uniform spaces and a category of quantale-valued metric spaces. We also obtain a quantale-based metrization theorem for arbitrary topological spaces that refines existing constructions. These results identify quasi-uniformities as the appropriate qualitative counterpart of quantale-valued metrics. Building on this correspondence, we show that the Hausdorff-Smyth monad on quantale-valued metric spaces, which is used in quantitative robustness analysis, arises as a lifting of a corresponding monad on quasi-uniform spaces along the equivalence. This provides a unified categorical framework connecting topology, quasi-uniformity, and quantitative robustness analysis.
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Logic in Computer Science

Specification-Guided Path Shortcutting for Efficient Probabilistic Model Checking

Given the safety-critical nature of many embedded systems, their safety assurance is essential. Because such systems are typically stochastic, probabilistic model checking is a particularly important technique. However, there is a well-known scalability issue due to state-space explosion, especially when verifying complex properties. To mitigate this issue, we propose specification-guided path shortcutting for probabilistic systems, focusing on Markov chains (MCs) and $\omega$-regular properties. The key idea is that, when the verified property is fixed, certain sequences of transitions in an MC can be replaced with a single transition without changing the satisfaction probability, and thus, we can reduce the state space of the MC. We implement the proposed path shortcutting and evaluate its contribution to the performance of probabilistic model checking, using Storm as the baseline model checker. The results suggest that our approach often outperforms the baseline, particularly on benchmark instances with complex specifications.
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Logic in Computer Science

Polynomial Invariants for Probabilistic Transition Systems with Unbounded Support

We study the synthesis of polynomial invariants for probabilistic transition systems (PTS) based on martingale theory. We present tractable methods to verify that such polynomials are indeed invariants, in the sense that their expected value upon termination is the same as their value at the start of the computation. We do this by applying the Optional Stopping Theorem (OST) in the form of a specific precondition. This precondition requires the existence of an integrable dominating function for the martingale expression, which implies uniform integrability; we refer to this condition as dui. For linear PTS we simplify the dui property to proving finiteness of the expected value of an expression depending on the update matrix, the degree of the martingale expression, and the stopping time. Specifically, if all random samples have finite moments and we can verify a moment bound on the runtime of a linear loop, then we can automatically synthesise polynomial loop invariants that satisfy the OST. Notably, dui allows for the sampled distributions to have unbounded support, which is a novel contribution to the field.
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All authors Anne Schreuder, Lorenz Winkler, Laura Kovács, C.-H. Luke Ong

Tuesday 1 September

Logic in Computer Science

On Synthesis of Metric Interval Temporal Logics

Automated mining of formal specifications is vital for verifying real-time systems. However, existing passive learning approaches remain restricted to deterministic specifications or limited fragments of Timed Regular Expressions (TRE). To our knowledge, this paper presents the first framework to tackle precise passive learning for an expressive timed logic, Metric Interval Temporal Logic (MITL) without relying on predefined templates or restricted logic fragments. Our approach formally reduces the timed learning problem into a scalable untimed one. By identifying quantitative timing differences between positive and negative traces, we synthesise precise timed constraints and inject them as new Boolean atomic propositions. This embeds timing into the alphabet, delegating the complex formula evaluation to highly optimised, off-the-shelf untimed LTL tools. Crucially, our framework is complete, guaranteeing a separating specification can always be found. We evaluate our implementation across several benchmarks, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.PF

The Price of Remembering: A Calibrated Energy Law for Computation

Where does a computer's energy go? Mostly into keeping, not into computing. A bit held in fast storage draws power for every second it stays there, and it costs energy again each time it moves between storage levels. We call the first cost rent and the second fare, and we state one law: the energy of a computation is at least its operations, plus rent on every live bit for as long as it lives, plus fare on every bit moved. The model under the law prices control as well as data. There is no free clock, and any unpriced register would make the theorems false. One lemma does most of the work: every use of a value is paid for by rent, by fare, or by computing the value again. Three things follow. Exact attention brings every past token back for every new one, so its energy grows with the square of the context length, while a recurrent model with a fixed state grows linearly. The square is a theorem for machines that never re-read past tokens. Under a stated serving hypothesis it is the fare on every past token, which passes the model's own arithmetic near ten thousand tokens, the point where long-context serving becomes bandwidth-bound today. Known bounds on memory over time become joule floors: on any sequential machine with volatile working storage, sorting $n$ items pays rent proportional to $n^2/\log n$ bit-steps on most inputs, and the bound for scrypt makes every password guess cost joules that no amount of parallel hardware reduces.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.LO

Modalities in non-classical variations of $\mathsf{S4}$

A classical result in modal logic states that $\mathsf{S4}$ has $14$ modalities, that is, every sequence of negations, boxes, and diamonds is equivalent to one in a set of $14$ such sequences. We study analogous results for the non-classical analogues $\mathsf{CS4}$, $\mathsf{IS4}$, $\mathsf{GS4}$, and $\mathsf{GS4^c}$ of $\mathsf{S4}$. First, we show that, while all these logics have finitely many $\{\Box,\Diamond\}$- and $\{\neg,\Box\}$-modalities, the logic $\mathsf{CS4}$ has infinitely many $\{\neg,\Diamond\}$-modalities. Second, we show that $\mathsf{IS4}$ and $\mathsf{GS4}$ have finitely many $\{\neg,\Diamond\}$-modalities, but they have infinitely many $\{\neg,\Box,\Diamond\}$-modalities. At last, we show that $\mathsf{GS4^c}$ has finitely many $\{\neg,\Box,\Diamond\}$-modalities.
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Monday 31 August

Logic in Computer Science

Subgroup Accessibility in Group Order Logic

We investigate the expressive power of fixed-point logics (FP) and their extensions in defining generating sets for accessible subgroups of definable permutation groups. This operation, computable in polynomial time via the Schreier-Sims algorithm, plays a central role in the group-theoretic approach to Graph Isomorphism and Graph Canonisation. In particular, it underpins polynomial-time canonisation for bounded colour-class graphs–a class for which no natural logic capturing P is currently known. We first show that this operation cannot, in general, be expressed in any logic for P. This limitation arises from the fact that accessible subgroups need not admit symmetric generating sets of polynomial size. However, we prove that when the base group admits a definable ordered generating set, the accessible subgroup operation becomes definable in fixed-point logic with the group order operator (FP + ord). This is achieved by partially simulating the Schreier-Sims algorithm within FP + ord. As a corollary, we show that fixed-point logic with counting (FPC) can also define the operation when the base group is abelian. In particular, FPC can define the automorphism group of any graph with abelian colours–despite being unable to canonise such graphs.
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Logic in Computer Science

Exponential Gaps Between Intuitionistic Linear Extended Frege Systems

In this paper, we establish exponential separations between Extended Frege systems for a range of intuitionistic substructural and linear logics. More precisely, for any logic $L$ below the intuitionistic logic obtained by extending $\mathbf{ILL}$ with structural rules, and any logic $M$ not contained in $L$, we construct a family of $\mathsf{FL_e}$-provable formulas that have short proofs in $M$-Frege but require proofs of exponential size in $L$-Extended Frege. The same result holds in the $!$-free settings, using $\mathbf{IMALL}$ and $\mathbf{FL_e}$ in place of $\mathbf{ILL}$. The key ingredient in proving these separations is a variant of the feasible disjunction property for $L$-Frege, which may be of independent interest.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.FL

A note on the reduction from LTLf to LTL

LTLf, a finite word variant of LTL, can be reduced to LTL by introducing a new atomic proposition indicating the prefix of the infinite words that correspond to the finite words that the original LTLf formula was considering. Such a reduction was originally proposed by De Giacomo and Vardi (IJCAI'13). However, while any LTL formula reduced from LTLf describes an obligation property in the hierarchy of Manna and Pnueli (PODC'90), the aforementioned reduction does not provide an LTL formula that belongs to the syntactic obligation fragment of LTL. This note shows how the reduction was fixed in Spot in order to ensure that the resulting LTL formula is always a syntactic obligation. Doing so allows algorithms specialized to syntactic obligation to be used on LTLf formulas. For instance, in previous work (CAV'26) we described a specialized translation from syntactic obligations to minimal, weak, deterministic Büchi automata that would not be usable with the original reduction.
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Logic in Computer Science

Schwarz: Solver-Aware Agentic Program Verification

Agentic verification systems can often generate source-level specifications that look plausible, but plausibility is not enough: the verifier must still turn those specifications into SMT obligations that the solver can prove. When this step fails, current LLM-driven loops usually expose only a coarse verifier error, timeout, or unknown solver result. The model cannot tell whether the specification is wrong, a helper lemma is missing, the proof context contains irrelevant facts, or the obligation needs a different theory view. This paper presents Schwarz, an agentic verification harness that makes SMT-backed proof failure local, checkable, and repairable. Schwarz turns failed verification into obligation-local repair tasks: program-point snapshots expose checked facts at a boundary, local lemmas let the agent propose missing proof steps, and theory-aware solver policies guide the agent toward solver-friendly formulations for numeric, quantified, memory, and floating-point obligations. We implement Schwarz for C and Rust/Verus and evaluate it on 1,475 tasks. On 475 benchmarks from recent agentic verification tools, Schwarz solves 95.2% of the tasks. On 1,000 tasks from the SV-COMP 2026 ReachSafety track, averaging 1,427 LOC, Schwarz solves 91.5% of the tasks, compared with 60.1% for CPAchecker. Ablations and comparison with a pure-agent baseline show that solver-aware repair is effective and scalable.
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Logic in Computer Science

Computational free will as global selection: from sheaf-theoretic gluing to a conditional separation of P and NP

We formalise computational free will by separating locally constrained admissibility from the selection of one global continuation. Global sections of a finite choice presheaf form an admissible set, GLUE; SELECT singles out the continuation realised at a pre-identified occurrence. A uniform trace relation certifies that continuation efficiently after the act, although it is assumed not to be uniformly anticipable in polynomial time from the prior occurrence input. Under explicit uniformity, balance, historical-completeness, and unique-projection assumptions, this trace defines a total FNP search relation with no deterministic polynomial-time selector. Thus existence of computational free will in the stated sense implies a separation between polynomially verifiable and polynomially solvable search, and hence that P differs from NP. The result is conditional and gives no unconditional class separation.
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Logic in Computer Science

Unary Functions, Automorphisms, and Unlabeled First-Order Model Counting

Every fixed first-order sentence $\varphi$ determines an enumerative sequence $n\mapsto\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi,n)$, counting its models on the labeled domain $[n]$. We study the complexity of these sequences when logical specifications may use genuine unary function symbols and hence nested terms $x,f(x),f^2(x),\ldots$. We first prove that, for every fixed sentence $\varphi\in\mathrm{C}^1_{=}[f]$, with one unary function and an arbitrary finite relational vocabulary, $\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi,n)$ is computable in time polynomial in $n$. By contrast, permitting either a second variable or a second unary function already yields hardness. Without counting quantifiers, there is a fixed sentence in $\mathrm{FO}^2_{=}[f]$ whose model-counting function is $\#\mathrm{P}_1$-complete. With one variable and two unary functions, there is a fixed constant-free universal sentence in $\mathrm{FO}^1_{=}[f,g]$, using only unary predicates besides $f$ and $g$, whose model-counting function is again $\#\mathrm{P}_1$-complete. We also relate labeled and unlabeled enumeration exactly. For every relational sentence $\varphi$, we construct an extension $\varphi_{\mathrm{aut}}$ in which a unary function records an automorphism and $\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi_{\mathrm{aut}},n)=n!\cdot\mathrm{UFOMC}(\varphi,n)$, where $\mathrm{UFOMC}(\varphi,n)$ denotes the number of $n$-element models of $\varphi$ up to isomorphism. Thus automorphism marking gives a one-query exact reduction from unlabeled to labeled model counting at the same domain size. Over relational vocabularies of maximum arity at most $k$, where $k\geq2$, eliminating the auxiliary function yields single-query reductions from unlabeled $\mathrm{FO}^k_{=}$ and $\mathrm{C}^k$ model counting to labeled $\mathrm{FO}^{k+1}_{=}$ and $\mathrm{C}^{k+1}$ model counting, respectively.
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Sunday 30 August

Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.CC

The Complexity of Coverability-Like Problems in Elementary Object Systems: Data-Nets to the Rescue

Elementary Object Systems (EOSs) are a model in the nets-within-nets (NWNs) paradigm, where tokens in turn can host standard Petri nets. We study the complexity of coverability-like problems, including termination and boundedness, over EOSs. Since coverability and boundedness are undecidable in general on EOSs, we focus on the relevant fragment of conservative EOSs (cEOSs). Our technique interprets cEOSs into the framework of data nets, whose tokens carry data from an infinite domain, thus bridging the nesting and the data-aware paradigms. Specifically, we show that cEOS coverability-like problems are equivalent to the coverability-like problems over an interesting fragment, called channel-$\nu$PNs (c-$\nu$PNs), of data nets that extends $\nu$PN (featuring globally fresh name creation) with restricted forms of transfers with renaming. c-$\nu$PNs remain less expressive than Unordered Data Nets, which feature lossy name creation as well as powerful forms of whole-place operations and broadcasts. These reductions allow us to analyze cEOS coverability taking advantage of known results on data nets. We conclude that the complexity of cEOS coverability is double-Ackermanian, $\mathcal{F}_{\omega 2}$-complete, while termination and boundedness are non-primitive recursive.
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Saturday 29 August

Logic in Computer Science

A quantum let within the lambda calculus

Since the seminal work of Selinger and Valiron, the standard design for quantum lambda calculi has kept the quantum state outside the program: terms manipulate pointers to an external register. This is largely due to the difficulty of eliminating tensor products. For example, the calculus $\lambda_\rho^\circ$ embeds density matrices directly within terms, where terms carry the entire computation state, a feature particularly appealing for program verification. However, lacking a tensor elimination construct, it can neither access the individual qubits of a compound state nor discard them. Borgna showed that this inability to discard qubits makes the calculus strictly less expressive than the quantum lambda calculus of Selinger and Valiron. In this paper we show that tensor elimination is possible in this setting. The key observation is that the Pauli decomposition, combined with the spectral decomposition of the Pauli matrices, allows any $n$-qubit density matrix to be expressed as a real linear combination of tensor products of single-qubit density matrices. Exploiting this fact, we extend $\lambda_\rho^\circ$ with a construct $\mathrm{let}\ x^{\otimes n} = \rho\ \mathrm{in}\ t$, which binds each $x_i$ to a single-qubit density matrix arising from the decomposition of $\rho$. We equip the extended calculus with a rewrite system, a type system, and a denotational semantics, and prove Subject Reduction, Progress, Strong Normalisation, Soundness, and Adequacy. The new construct also recovers the missing ability to discard qubits, thereby restoring expressiveness. Moreover, we show that this is achieved in a physically principled way: a variable unused in $t$ is interpreted exactly as being partial-traced out, as dictated by the no-deleting theorem. We illustrate the resulting compositionality through quantum teleportation and the three-qubit bit-flip code.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.CR

Mechanizing Typed Regulatory Actions for Security Tokens: Semantics, Falsification, and Bounded EVM Evidence

Security-token standards expose privileged controls without identifying the legal effect executed or the evidence and reversal obligations it carries. We formalize in Isabelle/HOL a reference execution semantics for the six ERC-8319 meanings: FREEZE, SEIZE, CONFISCATE, LIQUIDATE, RESTRICT, and RECOVER. It distinguishes applied, rejected, and operational-failure outcomes and mechanizes action-specific reversals, replay and epoch rules, complete frames, case-local terminality, and final receipts; the session builds without unproved placeholders or additional axioms. An indistinguishability theorem shows that bound kernel inputs cannot establish external facts about title, settlement, or entitlement. Constructive witnesses and direct mutations establish reachability and sensitivity for the declared fault set. For a successor ERC-TRUST Solidity/EVM candidate, we report separately scoped Foundry, Certora, Kontrol/KEVM, mutation, deterministic-build, runtime-identity, and independent-reproduction evidence. All twelve named evidence lanes pass with none pending, while the 74-row obligation ledger remains conditional: 70 rows are closed, two runtime-link rows remain successor obligations, and two are inapplicable. The Native runtime is bound separately from an ERC-3643 interoperability reference that explicitly reports Partial and full=false, not Verified Full. These results do not establish complete Isabelle-to-Solidity-to-EVM refinement, compiler correctness, audit completion, production readiness, deployment verification, or external legal truth. They provide a machine-checked domain semantics and an explicit map of proved, bounded, assumed, and open results.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

Verification abundance, adjudication scarcity: what happens to mathematical knowledge when proof checking becomes free

In May 2026 an OpenAI model produced a counterexample to the Erdős unit distance conjecture. Five mathematicians published a human-verified version the same day, and the result entered the literature within weeks. In August 2026 the same laboratory published ten mathematical and theoretical computer science results, each accompanied by a machine-checkable Lean 4 certificate with no unproved steps. Four weeks later, one remained the subject of an unresolved dispute over whether its formalization meant what it claimed. We argue that this difference is structural. We distinguish three layers of verification: derivational validity, which a kernel checks; representational fidelity, whether the formal statement means the intended question; and epistemic significance. Only the first is mechanizable. Making it effectively free therefore does not eliminate verification work but shifts the burden to layers dependent on scarce expert attention. Measurements of the August corpus illustrate the shift. The kernel-checked proofs total 20.6 MB, while the statements requiring human audit total 55.6 KB, a ratio of 379 to 1. Yet those statements contain 218 bespoke definitions rather than relying on community-vetted ones. The audit surface is therefore small in volume but irreducibly expert. We argue that machine checking produces verification abundance while leaving adjudication scarce. We propose a six-category taxonomy of representational mismatch, a disclosure schema for machine-generated mathematical claims, and implications for software, cryptography, and regulated decision systems.
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Friday 28 August

Logic in Computer Science

On Left Adjoints Preserving Colimits in Homotopy Type Theory

We examine how the standard proof that left adjoints preserve colimits behaves in the setting of wild categories, a natural setting for synthetic homotopy theory inside homotopy type theory. We show that the proof may fail for adjunctions between wild categories and even produce a wild left adjoint that fails to preserve colimits. Our core contribution, however, is a sufficient condition on the left adjoint for the proof to go through. The condition, which we call 2-coherence, expresses that the naturality structure of the hom-isomorphism commutes with composition of morphisms. We present two useful examples of this condition in action. First, we use it, along with a new version of a known trick for homogeneous types, to show that the suspension functor, as well as a generalization thereof, preserves graph-indexed colimits. Second, we show that every modality, viewed as a functor on coslices of a type universe, is 2-coherent as a left adjoint to the forgetful functor from the subcategory of modal types, thereby proving this subcategory is cocomplete. We have formalized our main results in Agda.
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Logic in Computer Science

Self-extensional logics of formal inconsistency: Decidability and limits for paraconsistency

RmbC is a self-extensional paraconsistent logic in the family of Logics of Formal Inconsistency (LFIs). This system is obtained from mbC (the basic LFI) by adding the replacement property via two global inference rules. RmbC is characterized by a non-explosive negation $\neg$ and a consistency operator $\circ$, which recovers the principle of explosion in a controlled way. Together with its principal axiomatic extensions, RmbC admits a standard Lindenbaum-Tarski algebraization, with Boolean algebras with LFI operators (BALFIs) as its algebraic semantics. In this paper, we study how far this self-extensional paraconsistent behavior can be extended axiomatically, starting from RmbC. We classify pairs of very natural consistency axioms according to whether they preserve paraconsistency or force classical collapse; identify six minimal explosive combinations that collapse to a single algebraic core; and isolate a separate structural obstruction for the combination of excluded middle for $\neg$ with an involutive negation. We also investigate, for the first time, the decidability of this family of self-extensional LFIs. As a first result, we prove the finite model property for RmbC with respect to BALFI semantics via an algebraic filtration, which yields decidability, and transfer this result to several paraconsistent axiomatic extensions of RmbC. Finally, we establish a coNEXPTIME upper bound for the validity problem of RmbC and a coNP-hardness lower bound, and prove coNP-completeness for the principal extensions containing one of the six minimal explosive pairs.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

Prove2Me: An Open Collaborative Platform for Scaling Math Formalization

Proof assistants such as Lean 4 promise the paradigm of formally verified mathematics, but large-scale formalization projects have faced major barriers to entry, including the need for expertise in formal verification (as well as the underlying mathematics) and the significant time required for writing formal proofs. AI coding agents have dramatically reduced these barriers; human users can now use natural language to prompt agents to write complex proofs in Lean. This opens up the intriguing possibility of internet-scale mathematical collaboration involving both humans and AI agents, where correctness is machine-checked. To realize this possibility, we introduce Prove2Me (https://prove2.me), an open collaborative platform for formalizing mathematics. Users launch formalization "missions", to which AI agents contribute formal proofs toward completion. We designed mechanisms and a specialized harness in Prove2Me that enable large-scale collaboration so that agents can build on one another's work and freely reuse existing results. In doing so, Prove2Me aims to turn math formalization into a scalable, crowd-sourced effort open to anyone with an agent.
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All authors Shuze Chen, Kunal Marwaha, Xiaoyang Lu, Henry Yuen, Tianyi Peng

Logic in Computer Science

Adaptive Strategies for GR(1) Games

We consider two-player GR(1) games on graphs, where the system player Eve must satisfy \[ \Box\Diamond A_1\land\cdots\land\Box\Diamond A_m \;\implies\; \Box\Diamond G_1\land\cdots\land\Box\Diamond G_n \] against the environment player Adam. Here $A_1,\ldots,A_m$ are assumptions on the environment, $G_1,\ldots,G_n$ are guarantees the system must provide, and $\Box\Diamond S$ denotes “always eventually $S$”. Traditional static strategies are overly conservative: they may actively violate assumptions to trivially satisfy the implication, or abandon all guarantees when any assumption is violated. Existing methods to prevent such behaviors incur doubly exponential blowup. We introduce an adaptive framework treating Adam as a non-adversarial agent with unknown objectives. Eve monitors which assumptions Adam actually meets and adapts her strategy at runtime to maximize satisfied guarantees. Central to our approach is a novel algorithm for monitoring liveness properties $\Box\Diamond S$, enabling Eve to maintain real-time likelihood estimates of which assumptions will be fulfilled. Eve pre-computes strategies optimal for different assumption subsets, deploying a probability distribution over them that dynamically adjusts based on monitor outputs. We prove that when assumptions are violated, Eve's randomized adaptive strategy converges asymptotically to the deterministic strategy maximizing guarantees. A prototype demonstrates effectiveness and superior computational performance compared to the state of the art.
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Thursday 27 August

Logic in Computer Science

Step Recursion: Exact Depth Does Not Determine Algebraic Expressiveness

Step recursion is a form of bounded recursion in which each recursive call moves from an input y to a prescribed predecessor $\rho_g(y)$. Its depth $D_g(y)$ is the exact number of such moves needed to reach zero. A natural question is whether knowing this depth for every input determines the expressive power of the resulting function algebra. We prove that it does not. We first construct two simple generators with exactly the same depth map but different step-recursion algebras. One gives ordinary binary halving, $b(x)=2x+1$; the other is $p(0)=1$, $p(x)=x+2^{\lambda(x)}$ for $x>0$, where $\lambda$ is binary length. Although $D_p=D_b$ pointwise, the predecessor $\rho_p$ cannot be defined from any fixed-stride binary-halving descent at basis zero. Thus two recursion schemes may take exactly the same number of steps on every input and still have different expressive power. The phenomenon is much larger than this example. Whenever infinitely many depth levels allow more than one predecessor arrangement, a single exact depth profile supports $2^{\aleph_0}$ distinct step-recursion algebras over every countable basis containing zero and the projections. In the computable setting the corresponding effective family has exactly $\aleph_0$ distinct algebras. Hence exact recursion depth is an informative resource measure, but it is not a complete invariant: the geometry of predecessor choices inside each depth level carries additional algebraic information.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.CC

Step Recursion: Mixed Stride Spectra, Path Factorization, and Synchronization Geometry

Step recursion allows recursive computation to move through a canonical hierarchy in jumps, or strides. Suppose a function algebra is allowed to use several primitive stride lengths $L$. Composition immediately produces sums of these lengths, but it is not clear whether arbitrary nesting of mixed recursions can create any genuinely new canonical stride. We prove that it cannot: at every fixed canonical row $n\ge2$ and lower basis $m<n$, the canonical strides definable from $L$ are exactly the additive monoid $\langle L\rangle$ generated by $L$. The proof gives more information than membership alone. Every sufficiently high dependency path computing a canonical descent of stride $p$ carries total label weight exactly $p$, and the possible path signatures are precisely the additive factorizations of $p$ by the primitive stride labels. Thus the computation remembers both which strides are definable and how each one can be assembled. After saturation, inclusion between mixed-stride classes is exactly inclusion between their additive stride monoids, giving a concrete lattice description and finite certificates for inclusion. We then study several synchronized recursion clocks. Joint descent maps can encode arbitrary additive submonoids of $\mathbb N^r$, already giving continuum order complexity for $r=2$. Ordinary scalar observation, however, forgets correlations between the clocks and retains only the independent coordinate strides. This identifies precisely where synchronization information is preserved and where it collapses.
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