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Computer Science Logic in Computer Science

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Friday 2 October

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

RAOA: Alternating-Operator Neural Computation with Programmable Radio Propagation

Can programmable radio propagation serve as computational depth rather than only as a communication channel or one-shot analog transform? We introduce the Radio Alternating Operator Ansatz (RAOA), a recurrent computing architecture that alternates an energy-derived problem update with a mixing update over a persistent latent state. Recomputing the problem field after each mix makes repeated passes compositional even when the same learned controls are reused across depth. We evaluate this idea through exact discrete optimization, constrained programmable-propagation simulation, and pretrained-model adaptation. On discrete objectives, repeated execution can improve solution quality without increasing the learned-control count, and the same formulation handles higher-order interactions directly. A passive phase-only free-space model further shows that the required operators can be approximated by programmable propagation while retaining useful downstream behavior despite realization error. When inserted as a zero-initialized residual adapter, RAOA adapts pretrained language models with WikiText performance close to a matched shallow MLP across three model families, while reasoning-task transfer remains model-dependent. Together, these results connect alternating-operator computation, programmable radio propagation, and neural adaptation within one recurrent framework. The RF realization evidence is simulation-based rather than a hardware demonstration.
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Thursday 1 October

Logic in Computer Science

ProsaBuddy: Assisting Mechanized Real-Time Schedulability Analysis with LLM-based Agents

Rigorous schedulability analysis is essential for the design of hard real-time systems, yet errors in pen-and-paper proofs threaten the safety of critical applications. The Prosa initiative addresses this by offering a foundation for building machine-checkable schedulability analysis proofs in the Rocq proof assistant. However, the substantial time and expertise required to construct such proofs remain a major barrier for wider adoption of Prosa. This work presents ProsaBuddy, an LLM?based agent system designed to lower the effort needed to develop mechanized real-time schedulability proofs. ProsaBuddy employs a ReAct loop with retrieval over the Prosa codebase, access to Rocq tools and optional human-written hints. It uses a subgoal?delegation architecture, decomposing a lemma into subgoals and dispatches them to subagents for proof. We evaluate ProsaBuddy on a mini benchmark drawn from real-time scheduling literature. Experiment results show that ProsaBuddy significantly outper?forms state-of-the-art LLM-based Rocq automated proving agent systems and a general coding agent OpenCode
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All authors Junyi Liu, Tianchi Ren, Fei Guan, Xu Jiang, Zhe Jiang, Wang Yi, Nan Guan

Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Generalised Bit-Vector Abstractions for Formal Verification of Quantum Error-Detection and Entanglement Circuits over {H,X,C-NOT}: CSS Constructions, Soundness, and Mutation-Based Validation

Formal verification of quantum circuits becomes difficult as circuit size grows because exhaustive reasoning over the Hilbert space is computationally expensive. In previous work [1], we introduced a bit-vector abstraction that separates superposition tracking from basis-state behavior, enabling SMT-based verification of fixed-size error-detection and entanglement circuits built from H, X, and C-NOT gates. This paper extends the framework in five directions. First, we generalise correctness properties to parametrised repetition and concatenated phase-flip codes with up to 101 logical elements. Second, we verify syndrome extraction for CSS codes specified by arbitrary parity-check matrices, including the Steane, [[15,7,3]] Hamming, [[15,1,3]] Reed-Muller, and rotated surface codes with distances up to 101. We consider arbitrary error patterns, detection up to a specified weight, and recovery using a classical decoder, with counterexamples beyond each code's correction or detection capability. Third, we characterize the {H,X,C-NOT} fragment for which the abstraction faithfully represents Hilbert-space semantics. We prove soundness, demonstrate necessity with counterexamples, validate the characterisation against state-vector simulation, and prove the six lemmas from the original work. Fourth, a mutation study using 13 operators identifies equivalent mutants and detects all 622 non-equivalent mutants within the evaluated fault model. Fifth, a direct Z3 implementation verifies GHZ circuits with up to 262,144 qubits across three topologies on a 16GB laptop. Random H+C-NOT networks show verification cost rises sharply with depth when outputs depend on many inputs. The approach does not target general stabilizer circuits, Y-type stabilizers, fault-tolerant protocols, or physical noise; we identify extensions needed to address these cases.
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Logic in Computer Science

Proving at Scale for Universal Algebra

We introduce SemiBase, a project that computes and formally certifies finite identity bases for small semigroups. Deciding finite basability is undecidable for finite algebras and remains open for finite semigroups. The task requires a proof that a candidate basis is complete, or a proof that none exists, rather than a single first-order validity query. LLM-guided agents search for these proofs; a referee agent rebuilds them from source, and the Lean kernel checks the resulting corpus in a final audit. Humans choose targets and approve final outcomes. We certify every semigroup of order at most 6: all 1309 semigroups of order at most 5 and all 15973 of order 6, including proofs that the four known nonfinitely based semigroups have no finite basis. The bases for order 6 define 505 distinct varieties, whose inclusion order Vampire determines except for four pairs. The resulting catalogue is a machine-checked account of results scattered across the literature and a tested foundation for order 7.
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All authors João Araújo, Jan Hůla, Mikoláš Janota, Edmond W. H. Lee, Bartosz Naskręcki

Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Premonoidal Semantics and Scalable Diagrammatics of Fermionic Quantum Computing

Local fermionic mode (LFM) based quantum computation has pure state spaces that are isomorphic, via the Jordan-Wigner representation, to qubit state spaces, but its compositional structure is subtly different. Indeed, the algebraic formalism specifying how to embed fermionic systems underlies a notion of parallel composition, for which, in general, the usual interchange law of monoidal categories fails. We give a categorical account of this phenomenon. Starting from the CAR-algebraic semantics of fermionic gate application, we show that LFM processes form a symmetric premonoidal category whose centre is precisely the even, parity-preserving subcategory. The same processes can alternatively be organized with the ordinary tensor product and a fermionic presymmetry that is natural exactly on even maps. To reason diagrammatically in this latter presentation, we introduce pronaps, a relaxation of the notion of prop, in which permutations are not-necessarily-natural, and use them to organize a hierarchy of fragments of the fermionic ZW calculus relevant to the study of fermionic circuits on physically motivated gate-sets. We then extend scalable diagrammatic notation to pronaps. In this setting, syntactic sugars inspired by SZX and GSA are defined, with the specificity that matrix arrows encode minors and determinants, while graph triangles encode pfaffians of principal submatrices. These constructions yield elegant normal forms and completeness proofs for our presentations of the EoW, FoW, EW, and FW fragments. In particular, the FW presentation gives a new normal form for the matchgate fragment, distinct from the rWGS-X normal form of the planar-W (pW) presentation of the same category. The resulting framework connects fermionic circuit semantics, diagrammatic rewriting with scalable notations, and the algebra of determinants and pfaffians.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

Q-Learning for Reachability in MEC-Free MDPs

Reinforcement learning (RL) for reachability specifications is fundamental to sequential decision-making. Prior work establishes asymptotic convergence to optimal policies, but only through model-based methods that must explicitly estimate the transition probabilities of the underlying Markov Decision Process (MDP). We present Quasar, the first model-free algorithm with asymptotic guarantees for reachability on the fragment of MDPs free of non-terminal maximal end components (MECs), a building block to which every MDP reduces by the standard MEC quotient. Our algorithm follows the classical Q-learning approach, using temporal-difference updates to converge to an optimal policy without ever learning the transition probabilities. The resulting learner reduces the memory footprint from the O(|S|^2|A|) that model-based methods require to O(|S||A|). On the standardized Quantitative Verification Benchmark Set, our algorithm converges to the optimal policy with orders of magnitude fewer samples than the previous model-based state-of-the-art. Together these results are a concrete step toward the practical deployment of reachability learning and, with it, of specification-guided RL.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.CV

Hob-VL: A Benchmark for Visually Grounded Boolean Reasoning

Reliable visual reasoning requires composing multiple visual observations and returning consistent answers to logically equivalent questions. We introduce Hob-VL, a benchmark for visually grounded Boolean reasoning. Hob-VL comprises two tasks: (1) evaluating whether a Boolean rule holds in an image, and (2) identifying the (unique) object satisfying a Boolean description. Hob-VL contains 6,000 human-verified balanced Yes/No questions, each defined by a Boolean combination of ten visual statements, across 1,000 generated scenes and 46 diverse labeled photographs, along with 1,000 object-identification questions over the same photographs. Our question families are deliberately constructed to challenge reasoning through misleading local cues and nested logical operations, and include symbolic and structured natural-language presentations. Across eight model configurations with thinking disabled or minimized, Boolean accuracy ranges from 48.52% to 50.57%, while the identification accuracy reaches at most 43.0%. A thinking-enabled GLM configuration achieves uneven gains while retaining substantial errors and inconsistencies. Hob-VL exposes these failures through executable reference answers and matched evaluations.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

An ontology for cross-sectoral crisis management: core and public health modules

This paper presents the European Crisis Management Ontology (ECMO), a modular OWL-based ontology intended as a cross-sectoral reference for disaster risk reduction and response. ECMO is designed to be organised as a network of ontological modules. Among the modules, ECMO-CORE captures fundamental crisis management concepts such as hazard, event, exposure, impact, and response measure and uses ontology design patterns and the OWL2 punning technique to resolve ambiguities between hazard types and event manifestations. In addition, domain-specific modules are defined as in the case of the public health module aligned with SNOMED CT and ICD-11. To demonstrate the resource's utility, we used ECMO to represent the data of the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources system of the Joint Research Centre to generate an end-to-end pipeline that populates an ECMO-compliant knowledge graph from unstructured epidemiological news. Initial results demonstrate that ECMO provides the formal guardrails necessary for consistent and unified knowledge representation and integration. The ontology is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20070268 and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
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All authors Aldo Gangemi, Rita T. Sousa, Luigi Asprino, Giorgia Lodi, Andrea G. Nuzzolese, Valentina Presutti, Johannes Gysen, Diana F. Sousa, Luigi Spagnolo

Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.CO

A proof of Lehmer's permutation conjecture for neighbor-swap graphs

In 1965, D. H. Lehmer conjectured that the permutations of every multiset admit an imperfect Hamiltonian traversal by adjacent swaps: a walk in the neighbor-swap graph that visits every word, with some words visited twice in order to reach a neighbor and return. The question is posed as an unsolved research problem in Knuth's Art of Computer Programming. Verhoeff (2017) chose the stutter words, in which every domino is a double, as the words to be reached this way, and reformulated the conjecture as the Hamiltonicity of the graph $N(S)$ on the non-stutter words, with two exceptional families — binary signatures with an odd multiplicity, and the permutations of $(2k,1,1)$ — that admit a Hamiltonian path but no cycle. This article proves the reformulated conjecture, and with it Lehmer's conjecture. The key structure is a partition of the words into hypercubes: the swaps inside dominoes turn each class of words with the same domino contents into a hypercube, and the stutters are exactly the $0$-dimensional classes. When every multiplicity is even, Hamiltonian cycles of the hypercubes are glued along a spanning tree, with no finite check. The case of exactly one odd multiplicity reduces to the all-even case and to a theorem of Stachowiak (1992), the one inherited Hamiltonicity input, which also settles two or more odd multiplicities. The only finite ingredients are two explicit cycles, of 28 and 84 words. Every construction is implemented in Python and checked against brute-force graphs, and the proof is formalized in Lean 4 over Mathlib.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.SE

FORALL-LEAN-AGENT for Auditable Reasoning in Formal Mathematics and Software Verification

Coding agents increasingly automate Lean proof development, but successful compilation alone does not establish that a candidate proves the intended statement under acceptable assumptions. We present FORALL-LEAN-AGENT, a frontend-agnostic framework for auditable reasoning in formal mathematics and software verification. The framework combines isolated workspaces, Lean tools, and fresh review with statement comparison, axiom audits, and independent proof checking where supported. Verification evidence and reviewer decisions are bound to the same candidate artifact, making acceptance traceable. We evaluate the framework on VeriSoftBench, PutnamBench, and both problems in the Lean Eval softwareverification track. On the 100-task VeriSoftBench subset, integration with FORALLLEAN-AGENT raises benchmark-rule success from 93 to 100 for GPT-5.6 Sol at low effort while reducing cost from $69 to $62. The PutnamBench evaluation accepts all 672 problems at an average of $4.72 each. These results show that agent harness design can improve correctness and efficiency while providing evidence beyond aggregate solve counts.
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Wednesday 30 September

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

A Degree–Size Relation for Resolution over Polynomials

For every constant-width CNF, we show that linear degree in polynomial calculus (PC) implies exponential size in resolution over constant-degree polynomials, over the same prime field. Applications include exponential lower bounds for CNFs in $\operatorname{Res}(\operatorname{PC}_r/\mathbb{F}_p)$ and hence in $\operatorname{Res}(\oplus_p)$, separations between different moduli, improved lower bounds for $\operatorname{Res}(k)$ up to $k=\varepsilon\log n$, proof-search consequences, and an implication of super-polynomial $AC^0[p]$-Frege bounds from very strong PC degree lower bounds. The proof uses the common-multiplier idea isolated from Braun [arXiv:2609.23015] to construct a Razborov–Smolensky approximation that preserves inferences, without introducing extension variables. The approximation errors are measured by ranks of the multiplication maps induced by the error-witness polynomials, modulo bounded-degree PC consequences.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

A Simple Doxastic Deontic Logic for Norm-Guided Decision Making

Making decisions despite conflicting norms and incomplete or unreliable information is a fundamental challenge for autonomous systems. We introduce a simple doxastic deontic logic for this setting: a classically reducible fragment of Chellas' Minimal Deontic Logic, extended with explicit conditional norms and combined with multi-agent KD45, so that norms can depend on agents' beliefs about both facts and norms. On this logic we define the Doxastic Norm Compliance Optimization Problem, where an agent chooses a decision minimizing weighted norm violations. We distinguish subjective optimization (relative to the agent's beliefs) from objective optimization (relative to the actual facts). We give conditions under which (i) the two coincide and (ii) optimal decision-making can be reduced to weighted partial MaxSAT in polynomial time.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.PL

Freely Generated Categorical Structures and Automatic Differentiation, PhD Thesis (Introduction and Conclusion)

This version contains the introduction and conclusion of my PhD thesis, "Freely Generated Categorical Structures and Automatic Differentiation", together with its English and Dutch summaries. The full thesis consists of an introductory chapter, six joint research papers, and a concluding chapter, developed during my PhD studies at Utrecht University under the supervision of Gabriele Keller and Matthijs Vákár. The research papers are available separately and are not reproduced here. The introduction presents the scope of the thesis, explains the contributions of the six papers and their connections, and introduces the categorical foundations of our approach. The guiding idea is that programming languages, viewed as freely generated categorical structures, provide a principled setting for constructing structure-preserving program transformations and proving their correctness. Automatic differentiation supplies the central application: we study forward- and reverse-mode differentiation for expressive typed languages, including higher-order functions, recursive types, iteration and partiality. The semantic requirements of these transformations also motivate independent mathematical results on free distributive and extensive categories, cartesian closedness, and Grothendieck constructions. The conclusion brings these contributions together, discusses their limitations, and outlines further directions. Throughout, the thesis develops a dialogue between theory and practice: categorical semantics guides the construction of reliable and practically useful program transformations, while the demands of computation lead to new categorical structures and results.
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Logic in Computer Science

Security Properties of Neural Networks as Decision Problems

Certifying a deployed neural network raises decision problems that the verification literature has not classified: whether the model carries a backdoor planted in its training data, whether a fault in its stored parameters can drive it into an unsafe state, whether its output leaks a private part of its input. We formalise eight such problems and classify what we can. The organising observation is a logical one. The function computed by a piecewise linear network, together with all its node values, is definable by a quantifier-free formula of real addition of size linear in the network, so a property of the network is a quantifier-alternation sentence, which Sontag's 1985 theorem places in the polynomial hierarchy at the level of its prefix. Membership results are thus corollaries, and the argument makes plain what they need: that the quantified objects are inputs rather than the network's own parameters. Non-interference, monotonicity and counterfactual fairness have exactly the complexity of network equivalence and of interval verification, all co-NP- complete over ReLU. Detection of backdoor triggers from a quantised alphabet is Sigma_2^P-complete, one level above robustness certification, so it does not reduce to polynomially many robustness queries unless the hierarchy collapses. Inversion resistance is co-NP-complete for every l_p metric, p a fixed positive integer. Quantifying over parameters instead of inputs - the fault model of bit-flip attacks, radiation upsets and analog accelerators - makes verification exists-R-complete already for networks of identity nodes, for which every previously studied problem is in P, and it stays so when each parameter is confined to a box of inverse-polynomial width; the corresponding safety question is forall-R-complete for ReLU.
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Logic in Computer Science

Non-finite Axiomatizability and Undecidability of $\mathsf{Cheq}$

We prove that $\mathsf{Cheq}$ is not finitely axiomatizable, resolving a longstanding open problem in intermediate and modal logics. We further prove that the undecidability of Medvedev logic implies the undecidability of $\mathsf{Cheq}$.

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

From Verification Failures to Reusable Guidance for Coding Agents

Coding agents need to establish that a program satisfies a specification and that the specification captures the requested behavior. We study how expert diagnosis of verification failures can become reusable guidance for this work. Our approach combines executable language definitions in the K framework with a kit of procedures for constructing specifications, repairing proofs, and auditing their adequacy. A human-guided development campaign on HumanEval, a benchmark of 164 Python programming tasks, achieves a 164/164 success rate with the semantics and the kit, measured by final AI audit Pass verdicts after two targeted repairs. To examine whether auditing detects problems that successful proofs leave unresolved, we construct 12 author-reviewed pairs of clean and defective packages. Every package passes its K proofs, and completed audits identify all defects and accept all clean packages. We then use KleverBench to test specification and proof construction for 31 programs with changed operator meanings. Comparisons with complete acceptance rules and equally long generic advice yield mixed results across two model and budget settings, motivating further work on selecting useful guidance within resource limits. Human-reviewed Optimism proofs establish expected pause reverts for six operations within declared input bounds under London semantics with unbounded gas. We report progress, difficulties, and lessons toward agents that deliver programs with checkable correctness arguments.
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All authors Yuqing Zhai, Xiaohong Chen, Lingming Zhang, Sriram Vishwanath, Grigore Rosu

Logic in Computer Science

Improved Tristate Multiplication With Formalization in Rocq

We give a new multiplication algorithm for tristate numbers improving upon the state-of-the-art implementation from the Linux kernel in terms of precision and formal proofs. Our algorithm is significantly more precise as shown by experimental evaluation (at the peak, giving better results in 95.59% cases compared to the previous work for 31-bit samples). Importantly, we achieve this additional precision with performance comparable to the previous algorithm, as demonstrated by benchmarks. Finally, we formalize and prove the soundness of the algorithm in the Rocq proof assistant, adding to the trust in the resulting implementation. Our algorithm is now part of the upstream Linux kernel. Our soundness proof in Rocq for the new multiplication algorithm works for all bit widths, while the SAT/SMT-based machine-checked proof accompanying the previous algorithm was restricted to 8 bits. We also provide Rocq proofs for the soundness and optimality of the newly added tnum union operation and the existing tnum addition algorithm from the Linux kernel. Our optimality proof for tnum addition presents a simpler and straightforward lemma compared to prior work.
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Tuesday 29 September

Logic in Computer Science

Machine-Checked Computational Group Theory in Lean 4: Operational Schreier-Sims Stabilizer Chains, BSGS Sifting, and Backtrack Ordered Partitions

We present gap-lean4-port (Release v0.2.0), a machine-checked formalization of foundational algorithms in computational discrete algebra and permutation group theory within the Lean 4 interactive theorem prover and Mathlib4. While modern proof assistants feature extensive abstract algebraic hierarchies, constructive and operational permutation group algorithms, such as Charles Sims' 1970 Schreier-Sims algorithm, transversal tree lookups, and backtrack ordered partition refinement, have remained largely unformalized in dependent type theory. Here, we formalize the operational algorithmic core of the Groups, Algorithms, Programming (GAP) system library across four foundational modules, proving 35 machine-checked theorems with zero unproven conjectures (sorry) and zero custom axioms under standard Lean 4 foundations (propext, Classical.choice, Quot.sound). We machine-check: (1) Schreier-Sims stabilizer chain hierarchies (StabLevel, StabChain) and the invariance of incremental transversal tree extensions (extendSchreierPoint_invariant); (2) single-level and multi-level Schreier sifting reductions (siftOneLevel, siftFull), proving that full sifting strictly fixes all base points (siftFull_fixes_all_basePoints); (3) constructive soundness and completeness of Base and Strong Generating Set (BSGS) membership testing (membershipTestKnownBase_iff_mem); (4) backtrack ordered partition cell refinement (splitCellByPred), proving mutual cell disjointness, union conservation, and exact cardinality preservation; (5) cyclotomic extension rings Z/nZ(eps_m) and machine-check GAP's exact size theorem |Z/nZ(eps_m)| = n^m; and (6) executable Bezout inverses via Extended Euclidean GCD (Nat.gcdA) over residue rings Z/nZ. The entire codebase compiles deterministically under 'lake build RequestProject' and is openly available at https://github.com/pCwOrM/gap-lean4-port.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.LO

Karp's NP-complete problems over first-order definable structures

We determine the decidability of Karp's NP-complete problems on structures which are first-order definable over the theory of equality, also known as orbit-finite sets with atoms or nominal sets.

Logic in Computer Science

What Was Said, Not What Was 'Thought': Type-6 Logic for CoT Verification

We introduce Type-6 logic, a variant of dynamic epistemic logic augmented with two operators (uncertainty and recurrence), designed to model the inferential dynamics of contemporary large language model (LLM) chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning. Type-6 accounts for common LLM reasoning pathologies such as unlicensed revision, enthymemes, loopbacks, and unverifiable/incorrect claims. We propose a verifier based on Type-6 logic that builds a graph out the trace, and checks it against Type-6's axioms and inference rules. We evaluate our framework on LLM-generated CoTs four splits spanning formal and informal reasoning. Our verifier detects structurally unsound reasoning steps that surface-level heuristics miss, and allows for easy visualisation of the model's reasoning process. In our corpus, our verifier shows that derived contradiction is the most common hard-fail category in CoT, and that only about 3% of the propositions of a trace have impact on the final derivation. Ablation studies show that other verification methods (LLMs-as-judges, other neurosymbolic approaches, etc.) cannot be considered interchangeable: for example, agreement between LLMs-as-judges and LINC is $\kappa \approx 0.034$, and this persists within a method across underlying models. Type-6, however, is the most agreed-with method amongst the ones we tested. We prove our verifier runs on average-case linear time; and release our logic specification and artefacts.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.PL

A Calculus for Units of Measure with Conversion

Programs that compute with physical quantities often need to convert between units of measurement, and as the Mars Climate Orbiter showed, these conversions can be a rich source of errors. Meanwhile, typed unit calculi, our most rigorous formalisms for checking physical units in a program, have excluded unit conversions. Through this exclusion, they have established a powerful property: well-typed programs are invariant under rescaling (no program can depend on how big a meter is). But losing the ability to convert between units is a significant cost. In contrast, practical languages provide conversion but no invariance theorem. We present $\Lambda_S$, a typed lambda calculus with conversion, quantification over units and dimensions, and vectors and linear maps with per-component units, and we determine exactly how much invariance survives conversion. For terms without unit constants we prove two abstraction theorems: (i) a convert-free term is invariant under every rescaling; (ii) a term with conversions is invariant under every rescaling that scales all units of one dimension by the same factor. The condition in (ii) cannot be weakened: under any other rescaling, some conversion of a nonzero value is not invariant. For first-order programs, a verified decision procedure returns one of three verdicts: it certifies that no error in the declared conversion factors can change the program's answer, names the accumulated ratio through which such an error would scale it, or declines. A verified checker decides whether unit declarations are consistent and determine every conversion factor, and extracts each factor exactly. We also prove adequacy, erasure, and the $n$-variable Pi theorem of dimensional analysis with conversion. Every theorem is mechanized in Lean 4, and the evaluator compiles to a native binary.
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Logic in Computer Science

Concurrent Strategies as Street Fibrations

Concurrent games and strategies based on event structures are an established and expressive model of interactive computation. In this paper we revisit the problem of equipping this model with symmetry. Symmetry is essential for many applications, but it is also a source of mathematical complexity, not least because strategies with symmetry can be compared up to several distinct notions of equivalence. Our first contribution is a complete characterization of two classes of strategies for which composition admits an identity. For these two classes the identity laws hold, respectively, up to a "weak" and a "strong" notion of equivalence. The main result is that the weak class of strategies corresponds precisely to those inducing Street fibrations over the game. We also show how the established "thin" approach to symmetry also fits in this general framework. A second contribution is a formal connection between games and setoid-valued profunctors. This follows a long tradition of relating games and relational models, but here additionally includes a very general model of symmetries. Our characterization of strategies as Street fibrations makes the connection to profunctors significantly easier to establish.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.LG

HyDI: A hybrid Deep Learning-Inductive Logic Programming ensemble for multi-label classification

While attaining remarkable results for many applications, Deep Learning models are notoriously difficult to explain. This work introduces HyDI, a hybrid ensemble architecture for hierarchical multi-label classification. It combines a Deep Learning (DL) model with rule-based classifiers generated by Inductive Logic Programming (ILP). For leaf classes of the label hierarchy, the rule-based classifiers replace the DL model, leading to more transparent classification results. HyDI is applied to the Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) ontology, providing ILP-generated rules for 314 classes. For these classes, HyDI can generate global explanations as well as local explanations that combine visual and text-based descriptions.
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Logic in Computer Science

Formal Reasoning about Performance Models

Discrete-event simulation is a standard technique for modelling and analysing the performance of computer systems, networks, and services. Although simulation tools are widely used, reasoning about the correctness and performance guarantees of the models they implement remains largely ad hoc: simulation outputs are interpreted statistically, but there is no logical foundation for deductive reasoning about their behaviour. We present a core imperative calculus that captures the essential constructs common to discrete-event simulators: asynchronous execution, continuous and discrete sampling from distributions, and time-based event scheduling through a global event queue. On top of this calculus, we develop a proof system for reasoning about almost-sure reachability and expected reaching time properties. Our main result is a sound and complete proof rule for these properties. Our framework generalizes deductive reasoning for discrete-time probabilistic programs to the setting of performance models, in which continuous time and continuous probability distributions are central. We have implemented the proof rules in a tool embedded in Lean. We demonstrate the applicability of our proof rule by deriving proofs of almost-sure reachability and expected reaching time for a number of case studies, including client-server examples that go beyond analytic solutions from queueing theory as well as convergence behaviours in network routing protocols. Establishing the soundness and completeness of our proof rules requires significantly more complex arguments than in the discrete-time setting. This is due to the fundamentally discontinuous nature of the operational semantics and the measure-theoretic challenges of continuous time and probability distributions.
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All authors Moussa Labbadi, Rupak Majumdar, V.R. Sathiyanarayana, Sadegh Soudjani

Logic in Computer Science

Modelling Shared-Space Coordination in mCRL2: a Bach-to-mCRL2 Translation Framework

Although significant research has focused on the theory and implementation of data-based coordination languages, the critical aspect of their automated verification using model-checking techniques remains underexplored, which is essential for ensuring reliability and correctness in distributed systems. Existing tools, such as Anemone, provide a solid foundation for reachability-based verification of Bach programs. While they effectively analyze properties expressed in terms of state attainability, extending support to more expressive temporal specifications-such as liveness properties or invariants over shared space contents-remains an open opportunity. Such extensions are important to capture comprehensive system behaviors, for instance, ensuring that "a request is always matched by a response" or that "no message is silently lost". Addressing this limitation, we propose an automated translation from Bach to mCRL2, which explicitly represents the shared space, thereby enabling the use of mCRL2's mu-calculus model checker to verify complex properties beyond simple reachability. Complementing this translation, we introduce a systematic method to analyze the shared space in mCRL2 concerning data reachability, by directly expressing properties over the shared space's contents in the mu-calculus, thus providing a clearer framework for verification. This approach enables a novel verification process that combines action-based properties with state-based properties over the shared space contents, a largely unexplored area in current coordination-language verification approaches, offering a new dimension of analysis
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Logic in Computer Science

Dynamic Proof Theory for Dynamic Epistemic Logic

This paper proposes a calculus for Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL) based on dynamic hypersequents, a new framework for capturing the dynamics of epistemic models in a purely structural and natural way. We enrich dynamic hypersequents with agent indices and an event store, yielding a uniform representation of epistemic events. The resulting calculus enjoys a set of logical rules that are provably invertible. Moreover, all structural rules, including the contraction rules, as well as the cut-rule, are shown to be admissible. Finally, the calculus constitutes, to the best of our knowledge, the only proof-theoretic calculus for DEL that is both grounded in a classical S5 framework and inherently dynamic.
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Logic in Computer Science

A Rank-Preserving Gaifman Normal Form for First-Order Logic on Weighted Structures

We prove a rank-preserving version of Gaifman's Theorem. Compared to earlier rank-preserving locality theorems (in particular, [Grohe, Kreutzer, Siebertz, JACM 2017]), our theorem is much simpler and yields formulas in exactly the same normal form as Gaifman's original theorem. Furthermore, it holds not only for first-order logic, but also for first-order logic with modulo-counting quantifiers and, more generally, for the first-order logic on weighted structures ngFOW+ that is introduced in this article. As an application of our theorem, we give a simplified proof of the algorithmic meta-theorem of [Grohe, Kreutzer, Siebertz, JACM 2017] stating that first-order properties of nowhere dense structures can be decided in almost-linear time. Our locality theorem for the weight logic ngFOW+ can be seen as an essential step toward such a meta-theorem for this logic.
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All authors Steffen van Bergerem, Martin Grohe, Charlotte Lenz, Nicole Schweikardt

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

GenLimitLib: A Formal Library for Language Generation in the Limit and AI-Assisted Mathematical Research

We present GenLimitLib, a source-aligned Lean 4 library for language generation in the limit. Introduced by Kleinberg and Mullainathan at NeurIPS 2024, language generation in the limit studies a theoretical question motivated by LLMs: how to generate valid new strings from observed examples. This young and rapidly evolving field offers a natural testbed for studying large-scale formalization. GenLimitLib contains formal developments for 30 papers. It extracts shared definitions and reusable proof components while preserving paper-specific assumptions and statements, and records relationships across papers. In this way, GenLimitLib provides a concrete and structured view of the literature. We show through mathematical case studies and LLM experiments how our library can support both human mathematical research and AI-assisted research. Our Library: https://github.com/pengzhang91/generation-in-the-limit-lib.
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Monday 28 September

Logic in Computer Science

Proofs Without Nominals: Gödel's Ontological Argument, its Shallow Embedding, and the Open Questions of the Monatshefte Notes

The shallow embedding of higher-order modal logic in classical higher-order logic, used in Benzmüller and Scott's Notes on Gödel's and Scott's variants of the ontological argument, reaches beyond the modal object language: its quantifiers range over domains containing the nominals and satisfaction operators of hybrid logic. A proof using one proves a theorem of the embedding, not necessarily of the modal logic. Whether a result is one of the modal logic can be settled by replaying it in an explicit calculus, or, more cheaply and for all results at once, by analysing what the embedding's proofs substitute. Every statement the Notes prove has a proof in the embedding substituting nothing outside the object language, 294 of them explicit. The Notes' own proofs substitute none either; what it flags are terms a prover introduced. A soundness theorem over general models closed under the object language, and a sentence of that language the embedding proves but which fails in one of them, fix what the certificate says. The Notes' three open questions are settled too, without nominals, but by the empty instance of the conjunction axiom, too cheaply to convince. Generalised to Gödel's "any number of summands", the axiom covers the empty conjunction and the singleton. This article restricts it to at least two different conjuncts, a non-degenerate reading of Gödel's footnote, and settles them again without nominals. In effect only the empty conjunction is excluded; the singleton comes back with the other axioms. In one variant the restriction refutes the possible existence of a God-like being; the answers return, with no side condition, once the Notes' non-emptiness clause is confined to Gödel's essence. Every theorem here is verified in Isabelle/HOL and independently in Lean 4, the separating model in its propositional part; the countermodels are Nitpick's, checked by the build.
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2609.36279 · 28 Sep · 48 pages. New in v4: a soundness theorem for the criterion over general models closed under the object language, and a sentence of that language the embedding proves but no certified proof does, both formalised in Isabelle/HOL and Lean 4. Ancillary: every theorem in both systems, 16 sessions for the readings, 78 Nitpick searches the build checks, both detectors with reports, seven audit sessions

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

Irene: Equivalence Checking of Hybrid Quantum Programs via Structure-Preserving Symbolic Reduction

Equivalence checking is essential for validating compiler transformations of hybrid quantum programs, which combine quantum operations, measurements, and classical control. Measurement-dependent control limits unitary reasoning, while dependencies between classical outcomes and quantum operations can enlarge intermediate symbolic states. We present Irene, an equivalence-checking framework for bounded hybrid quantum programs based on structure-preserving symbolic reduction. The framework progressively simplifies equivalence obligations through three levels of reasoning. At the gate level, algebraic identities simplify unitary regions. At the hybrid path-sum (HPS) level, reduced symbolic execution states are represented as typed graphs, whose isomorphism certifies equivalence. Remaining obligations are handled by density kernels that characterize transformations of input density operators into observable outputs, allowing comparison even when internal measurement histories differ. Residual coefficient differences are encoded as SMT queries. A common set of symbolic reductions supports HPS and density-kernel reasoning by preserving factored Boolean and arithmetic expressions, eliminating reducible dependencies before expanding residual sums. We evaluate Irene against five equivalence checkers on 1,982 program pairs from seven benchmark suites. Irene solves 1,584 pairs (79.92%), compared with 57.52% for MQT QCEC, the baseline with the highest aggregate coverage, with a mean end-to-end time of 3.93 seconds per solved pair. Applied as an equivalence-checking oracle, Irene also identifies 15 previously unknown bugs in quantum compilers, including Qiskit, Cirq, and PennyLane.
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