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Tuesday 6 October

Logic in Computer Science

Proceedings Seventeenth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification

This volume contains the proceedings of GandALF 2026, the Seventeenth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification. The symposium was held in Aalborg, Denmark, on September 15-17, 2026. The aim of GandALF 2026 is to bring together researchers from academia and industry who are actively working in the fields of Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification. The idea is to cover an ample spectrum of themes, ranging from theory to applications, and stimulate cross-fertilisation.
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Logic in Computer Science

A First Introduction to Isabelle/ML Metaprogramming: Automatic Estimation of Polynomial Degrees

This article offers an introduction to metaprogramming in Isabelle/HOL for beginners, based on a running example for working with multivariate polynomials. The example is motivated by our formalisation of universal Diophantine pairs. We describe the implementation of the poly_degree command, which computes upper bounds on the total degrees of multivariate polynomials and automatically proves their correctness. The complete metaprogram handles a variety of special cases but herein we present a simplified version for the sake of exposition. We describe our development process and design decisions; our goal is to offer a small and self-contained tutorial on Isabelle/ML, for mathematicians who want to get started with metaprogramming.
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All authors Jonas Bayer, Anna Danilkin, Marco David, Annie Yao

Logic in Computer Science

Essence and accident modalities meet Belnapian truth values

This paper investigates many-valued generalisations of the classical essence and accident modalities. In two-valued logic, a proposition is essentially true (resp. false) if, whenever it is true (resp. false), it is necessarily true (resp. false); it is accidentally true (resp. false) if it is true (resp. false) but not necessarily so. Many-valued logics provide a natural setting for introducing further modalities of this kind. We focus on Belnap-Dunn's First-Degree Entailment (FDE), a four-valued system that generalises the classical truth values. More precisely, we consider an extension of FDE with Boolean negation and implication. In addition to modalities of essential and accidental truth and falsity, we define modalities of essential and accidental inconsistency and indeterminacy. We present a four-valued S5-based Kripke semantics and cut-free hypersequent calculi for the resulting logics. We then prove semantic and syntactic embedding theorems for these logics into a four-valued version of S5 with necessity and possibility modalities. These embeddings clarify the intended interpretation of the Belnapian essence and accident modalities and yield soundness, completeness, and cut-admissibility results.
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Logic in Computer Science

On Three-Valued Dependence-Like Logics

In this paper, we investigate connections between dependence logics, viewed as a subclass of relating logics, and three-valued logics. More specifically, we identify common features of Epstein's subject-matter semantics and the variable-inclusion conditions characteristic of some infectious many-valued logics. Inspired by Del Cerro and Lugardon's sequent calculi for dependence logics, in which classical connectives are combined with connectives satisfying Epstein-style conditions, we introduce two three-valued dependence-like logics that combine classical conjunction and disjunction with infectious negation and implication. We also provide sound, complete, and cut-free bisequent calculi for these logics.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

Mathematical Proof Assistants for Teaching Logic: The LogiKEy Methodology

We report on an approach to teaching logic to mixed groups of computer science, mathematics, and philosophy students, based on the logico-pluralistic LogiKEy methodology, used for more than a decade in courses, summer schools, and tutorials. LogiKEy uses classical higher-order logic (HOL) as a universal metalogic in which object logics, classical and non-classical alike, are encoded by defining their semantics; through these semantical embeddings a single proof assistant (e.g. Isabelle/HOL), with its automated theorem provers and (counter-)model finders, becomes one environment in which students learn, experiment with, and compare logics. After making the pedagogical case for proof assistants in the logic classroom, we present a graded sequence of classroom examples, each transition motivated by a limitation of the preceding representation, by a need for more explicit modelling resources, or by a new application. A liars-and-truth-tellers puzzle leads from propositional to modal logic; the Wise Men puzzle leads on to dynamic epistemic logic; Boolos's curious inference illustrates what a higher-order meta-logic buys, even for automated proof search; Chisholm's paradox takes the sequence into deontic logic, and from standard to dyadic deontic logic; and Gödel's ontological argument brings it to a research-level metaphysical argument. We then rebut the objection that embedding everything in classical HOL is monism rather than pluralism, reflect on three years of teaching such a course, and sketch the portability of the approach beyond Isabelle.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.GR

Testing epimorphism onto the bicyclic monoid is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete

We prove that deciding whether there is a surjective homomorphism from an arbitrary finitely presented inverse monoid onto the bicyclic monoid is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete. As part of the proof, we show that an extension of existential Presburger arithmetic which involves greatest common divisors on $n$ arguments is in $\mathsf{NP}$, extending a recent result of Défossez, Haase, Mansutti, and Pérez (SODA 2024).
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from math.CO

Topological and Geometric Perspectives on Homomorphism Indistinguishability

Two graphs $G$ and $H$ are homomorphism indistinguishable over a graph class $\mathcal{F}$ if, for every graph $F \in \mathcal{F}$, the number of homomorphisms from $F$ to $G$ is equal to the number of homomorphisms from $F$ to $H$. Lovász (Acta Mathematica Academiae Scientiarum Hungarica, 1967) showed that two graphs are isomorphic if, and only if, they are homomorphism indistinguishable over all graphs. Subsequently, homomorphism indistinguishability relations of a long list of natural graph classes have been equated with natural graph isomorphism relaxations. Given the wealth of such results, Atserias, Kolaitis, & Wu (LICS 2021) asked for an axiomatic characterisation of homomorphism indistinguishability relations. By exhibiting topological and geometric structure associated with homomorphism indistinguishability, we derive such an axiomatic characterisation. Here, a central ingredient is a novel characterisation of graph parameters of the form $\hom(F, \star)$ for some graph $F$ alternative to a previous result of Lovász & Schrijver (JCTA 2010). Moreover, we investigate the topology of homomorphism indistinguishability and discuss repercussions for the Ulam–Kelly Reconstruction Conjecture.
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All authors Josse van Dobben de Bruyn, Jérémie Marquès, David E. Roberson, Tim Seppelt, Gian Luca Spitzer, Peter Zeman

Logic in Computer Science

From Zero-Dimensional to Continuous Dualities: A Double-Categorical Account

We investigate how to systematically construct continuous dualities from zero-dimensional dualities, employing well-known methods from algebra, topology, category theory, and domain theory. While our method is general, this paper focusses on the move from Stone spaces to compact Hausdorff spaces and the move from Priestley spaces to compact ordered Hausdorff spaces. The engine of our approach is Stone duality for relations: on the space side quotienting by a preorder turns zero-dimensional spaces into continuous ones, while distributive lattices with a proximity relation are their algebraic duals. Our duality for relations is inherently order-enriched. Double categories organise both functional and relational morphism in the same structure. The move from zero-dimensional to continuous dualities is then a three-step construction: extend a duality from functional to relational morphism, split idempotents, restrict to maps.
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Monday 5 October

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

Rule-Based Languages for Neurosymbolic AI

Logic programming is increasingly used as the symbolic component of neurosymbolic AI systems. We survey the main rule-based languages in this setting, namely Datalog, answer set, and probabilistic logic programs, along four axes: semantics, expressiveness, neural integration, and evaluation mechanism. We analyse over 50 recent systems and applications, comparing formalism usage across four research areas: databases and programming languages, machine learning, vision, and robotics. We provide a decision matrix mapping application scenarios to required features and close by outlining open problems.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.LG

Minimal Witness Reinforcement Learning

“What are the irreducible conditions that are sufficient to produce an outcome?” is one of the most common questions that recur across computation and science. Its answers, the minimal sufficient witnesses, are what we mean by explanations, mechanisms and reasons. These problems usually ask for multiple minimal witnesses, yet standard RL methods may reveal only one solution or redundant ones. We formalize this problem as minimal-witness identification and introduce Minimal-Witness Reinforcement Learning (MWRL). MWRL takes the union of the sets certified by successful proposals sampled from the policy and credits each proposal for the coverage the group union would lose without that proposal. This credit assignment, derived directly from the problem definition, unifies the demands for minimality and recovery of alternatives from a single black-box verifier bit. Under this principle, we derive a value iteration planner that recovers the entire family of witnesses and a policy gradient method that can scale to large language models. Across different experimental settings, MWRL recovers most minimal witnesses, while other methods return redundant supersets or a single witness. By making witness families learnable from verifier feedback, MWRL expands the scope of reinforcement learning beyond single-solution optimization. Our code is available at https://github.com/TSUITUENYUE/MWRL.
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All authors T. Y. Tsui, Zihao Ye, Pengxiang Cai, Yanchao Li, Yuqiang Li, Zhehong Ai

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

Recognizers for Graph-Encoding Languages

We introduce recurrent incidence automata (RIAs), a new automaton model motivated by a decomposition of certain two-stack visibly pushdown computations. The decomposition separates vertex-local finite-state computations from recurrent one-stack interfaces connecting consecutive vertices. The construction is motivated by a two-stack visibly pushdown encoding of arbitrary ordered graphs whose strings admit a unique factorization into center-foldable vertex-local factors and whose auxiliary stack is empty at every factor boundary. Folding each factor into a sequence of pair symbols yields a local interface transformation. An RIA consists of a finite-state unit that computes these transformations and a recurrent layer that composes them across consecutive factors. Rather than manipulating an internal pushdown store, RIAs externalize long-range stack memory into recurrent interfaces between local computations. We show that nondeterministic RIA languages are closed under union, intersection, concatenation, Kleene-*, and reversal. Deterministic RIAs are closed under Boolean operations, although emptiness remains undecidable.
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Logic in Computer Science

Maslov's class K with Equivalence

Maslov's class K is a decidable fragment of equality-free first-order logic. It subsumes numerous classical decidable fragments, including the equality-free monadic fragment, the equality-free two-variable fragment, and the Gödel class. Introduced over 50 years ago, the class K has been studied in automated deduction, primarily through resolution-based methods. Despite this long history, the precise complexity of the satisfiability problem for K remained open until recently, when NExpTime-completeness was finally established. The two main contributions of this work are as follows. 1. The recent proofs of NExpTime-completeness and the finite model property for K are highly non-trivial and technically sophisticated. We present considerably simpler proofs of both results. Our approach combines a novel reduction from K to the class of solvable Skolem sentences with a randomised construction of finite models. 2. We introduce the class K+E by allowing sentences in K to contain one distinguished binary predicate E whose interpretation is constrained to be an equivalence relation. By leveraging our approach to this extended class, we prove that K+E has the finite model property and that its satisfiability problem is 2-NExpTime-complete.
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Logic in Computer Science

Decreasing Diagrams are Complete for Confluence

Confluence is a fundamental property of nondeterministic computations, arising from parallelism, concurrency, or freedom in the evaluation order. It guarantees that such a computation always yields the same result, regardless of the order in which steps are taken. The decreasing diagrams technique of van Oostrom is one of the most versatile methods for establishing confluence of transition systems (abstract rewriting systems). It reduces global confluence to local confluence: a system is confluent whenever its transitions admit a locally decreasing labeling. Essentially all classical confluence criteria arise as corollaries. A central question, posed by van Oostrom in 1993, asks whether the decreasing diagrams technique is complete: Does every confluent transition system admit a locally decreasing labeling? This is Problem 56 of the RTA List of Open Problems. A positive answer was known only for countable systems, and recently up to the first uncountable cardinal $\aleph_1$. The general case remained open. We settle this thirty-three-year-old problem in full. We prove that every confluent transition system admits a locally decreasing labeling using only three labels. This bound is optimal, as two labels do not suffice even at the first uncountable cardinality. It follows that this single criterion can, in principle, certify the confluence of every confluent system, and hence of every confluent program. The entire development is machine-checked in the Isabelle/HOL and Lean proof assistants and relies only on classical logic and the axiom of choice.
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Logic in Computer Science · Cross-listed from cs.AI

Impact of Data Augmentation on Confidence Calibration in Melanoma Classification

Accurately quantifying the predictive uncertainty or improving model calibration plays an important role in medical image classification, in particular in melanoma diagnosis, where accurate uncertainty quantification can have significant implications for patient care. One of the methods for calibration improvement is data augmentation. In addition, data augmentation as a method for synthetically increasing the size of the dataset has been proven to improve the performance of models trained on imbalanced datasets. However, the impact of data augmentation, as a transformation of a part of the original data, on calibration of models trained on imbalanced datasets, in particular in melanoma classification is under-explored. We train neural networks on SIIM-ISIC 2020 melanoma classification dataset under two conditions: with and without data augmentation, and compare the differences in AUC and expected calibration error (ECE) in both scenarios. Our results shows improvements in uncertainty calibration using different augmentation methods.
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Sunday 4 October

Logic in Computer Science

Scenario-Based Compositional Statistical Model Checking for Safety Specifications

In safety-critical domains such as autonomous driving, systems must be evaluated across a large number of environment conditions, often represented as composite scenarios built from primitive scenarios. Existing statistical model checking (SMC) approaches analyze each composite scenario independently, requiring many expensive simulations and resulting in substantial redundant computation when scenarios share common structure. This work introduces a scenario-based compositional SMC framework for safety and co-safety specifications, enabling efficient analysis of composite scenarios. Our approach decomposes scenarios into primitives and specifications into sub-specifications, verifies each primitive independently, and composes the resulting statistical estimates using importance sampling and kernel density estimation. Our empirical evaluation shows that the proposed framework can accurately answer verification queries for previously unseen composite scenarios while reducing simulation cost through parallelization and trace reuse.
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All authors Abhinav Pomalapally, Arya Raeesi, Kevin Kai-Chun Chang, Beyazit Yalcinkaya, Sanjit A. Seshia

Logic in Computer Science

AIProver: Agentic Auto-Formalization of Mathematical Research via Certificate-Driven Evolving Harness

Proof auto-formalization translates natural-language (NL) theorems and proofs into a formal language (FL) such as Lean, enabling mechanical verification. Despite rapid progress, research-level proofs often depend on concepts missing from leading proof assistant libraries (e.g., Lean's Mathlib), and successful compilation does not guarantee that a translation preserves the theorem's meaning or the proof's reasoning. Furthermore, aligned NL-FL training data are scarce, and leading agents often rely on costly frontier models and manually engineered harnesses. To address the above issues, we present AIProver, an agentic framework for autonomous proof auto-formalization and proof synthesis (AFPS) that jointly post-trains a 119B open-weight language model and evolves its agentic, tool-calling harness with HarnessEvolve. Verifiers assess type correctness, proof completeness, and semantic correctness, returning rewards and diagnostic certificates that drive model fine-tuning and alternating reinforcement learning via symbolic feedback and HarnessEvolve, a certificate-driven evolutionary search over the whole harness control flow that re-tailors the harness to the updated model. For research-level training and evaluation, we introduce LoCoBench, 58.9k instances from Mathlib, CSLib, Mizar Math Library, and a bounded-arithmetic textbook, with a 771-instance validation split whose theorem-proof pairs have no public Lean formalization. Against 39 frameworks spanning AFPS agents, frontier LLMs, and coding agents, AIProver lifts pass@4 semantic correctness over its Leanstral-1.5 base from 15.7% to 36.7% and outperforms every other open-weight system and Aristotle. As a Claude Code and Codex skill, it lifts their semantic correctness from 41.9% and 34.1% to 79.8% and 62.4%, respectively. Further, it is also 24% cheaper than Numina-Lean-Agent, pushing the accuracy-cost frontier of research-level AFPS.
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All authors Prithwish Jana, Viet Bach Hoang, Logan Luna, Viresh Pati, Akash Singirikonda, Cy Xie, Lisa Carbone, Wuyang Chen, Walter Moreira, Joe Stubbs, Sriram Vishwanath, Vijay Ganesh

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

StateSync-GKR: Machine-Checking the Trust Chain from Sparse-Merkle State Transitions to GKR Verification

GKR soundness bounds false output claims about arithmetic circuits, but an application also needs assurance that its circuit encodes the intended state transition. We machine-check this connection for sparse-Merkle membership, non-membership, and update in Isabelle/HOL. A compiler model relates circuit acceptance to transition validity in both directions. A reusable protocol model assembles layer reduction, wiring-predicate extensions, and imported sumcheck soundness into a bound on an explicit chain event. Their composition transfers semantic invalidity to that bound, with the witness fixed before the challenge experiment. Concrete interpretations and premise activations expose vacuous assumption sets that a clean build alone would miss. A further development constructs the exact degree-four KoalaBear extension, lifts the base-field circuit objects, and establishes the assembly bound with denominator $p^4$ under its stated challenge assumptions. An executable Rust prover accompanies the model. Creusot/Why3 contracts provide a partial implementation connection, and a conditional theorem relates successful verifier traces to the model event under an undischarged value-correspondence premise. Neither the transcript's online challenge distribution nor a multi-round Fiat–Shamir reduction is established. The contribution is the composition, within one proof assistant, of compiler correctness with a GKR assembly model, together with an explicit account of the remaining implementation and cryptographic obligations.
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Logic in Computer Science

A Logic for Minor-Free Graph Classes: Model Checking, Dependence, and Combinatorial Reconfiguration

We introduce sub-connectivity logic, denoted by $\textsf{FOscon}$, an extension of first-order logic for graphs with a specified set $Z$ of admissible edges. Its additional atom $\textsf{scon}(x,y;\bar z)$ asserts that $x$ and $y$ are connected by a path using only edges of $Z$ and avoiding the vertices in $\bar z$. Our main structural result states that, for every weakly sparse graph class $\mathscr C$, the class of all expansions of graphs in $\mathscr C$ by rooted spanning forest orders has bounded twin-width if and only if $\mathscr C$ excludes a fixed minor. When $\mathscr C$ excludes a fixed minor, we can also compute an additional linear order that preserves bounded twin-width in polynomial time. We translate $\textsf{FOscon}$ into first-order logic over an expansion by a depth-first spanning forest order of the admissible-edge graph. Combining this translation with our structural result, we obtain a model checking algorithm for $\textsf{FOscon}$ with running time $f(|\phi|,h(G))\cdot |G|^c$, where $f$ is computable, $c$ is an absolute constant, and $h(G)$ is the Hadwiger number of $G$. The translation and model-checking algorithm extend to binary relational structures, with the Hadwiger number measured on the Gaifman graph. For a graph class $\mathscr C$ let $\mathscr C_Z:=\{(G,Z):G\in\mathscr C,\ Z\subseteq E(G)\}$. We show that for every weakly sparse graph class $\mathscr C$, the class $\mathscr C_Z$ is monadically dependent for $\textsf{FOscon}$ if and only if $\mathscr C$ excludes a fixed minor. For monotone classes that admit efficient minor encodings, a corresponding hardness result makes this frontier computationally tight. We give applications to combinatorial reconfiguration and solution discovery problems, and study a guarded extension of $\textsf{FOscon}$ motivated by database queries.
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All authors Nikolas Mählmann, Patrice {Ossona de Mendez}, Nicole Schirrmacher, Sebastian Siebertz, Giannos Stamoulis, {Dimitrios M.} Thilikos, Alexandre Vigny

Logic in Computer Science

The Gentzen-style monadic translation of Gödel's System T revisited

We revisit the Gentzen-style monadic translation of Gödel's System T. The translation is parametrized by a nucleus, a monad-like structure that need not satisfy the monad laws. A fundamental theorem of logical relations provides a uniform correctness argument for its instances. By choosing suitable nuclei, we obtain majorants, moduli of pointwise and uniform continuity, internal dialogue trees, and functionals of general bar recursion, all represented by terms of T. The internal dialogue-tree application gives a simpler construction, with correctness established directly using Church-encoded terms. We also extend the translation and its fundamental theorem to sums and finite lists. Finally, we develop the Kuroda-style translation and its continuity instance, comparing the moduli obtained with those of the Gentzen-style translation.
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Saturday 3 October

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

Formalizing the Moral Evaluation of Speech Acts: Truthfulness, Lies and Ethical Dilemmas

In life-or-death situations, a benevolent lie may appear more moral than telling the truth. Yet such lies can backfire, producing unintended and sometimes fatal consequences. This tension, famously disputed by Kant and Constant in 1797, applies not only to lying but to assertive speech acts in general, raising the question of which utterance should be chosen when moral stakes are high. We present a logical framework for the ethical evaluation of speech-act utterances based on agents' beliefs. Implemented in Answer Set Programming (ASP), the framework assesses utterances under deontologism, consequentialism, and principialism, and is illustrated on Sartre's The Wall (1939), a reworking of that controversy in which lying leads alternately to rescue and to death. Our setting is general by design: as two variants show, accommodating a new moral situation amounts to adjusting parameters, not rules.
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All authors Benjamin Icard, Gauvain Bourgne, Jeanne Bonnaventure, Jean-Gabriel Ganascia

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

A Fine-Grained Dichotomy for Bounded-Variable Query Evaluation: The Calculus of Relations, a Boolean Modal Logic, and One-Variable Counting Logic

We study the fine-grained complexity of evaluating Boolean bounded-variable first-order queries over sparse relational structures. For every fixed $k \ge 2$, every relational signature, and every fragment between $k$-variable primitive positive ($\mathrm{PP}^{k}$) and first-order ($\mathrm{FO}^{k}$) logic, we prove, assuming the Sparse MAX-$3$-SAT hypothesis, a dichotomy theorem for evaluation in $O(m^{k-\varepsilon})$ time, where $m$ is the number of tuples in the input structure. The only tractable cases fall into three families: (1) three-variable fragments, (2) two-variable fragments, and (3) fragments over unary signatures. On the hard side, for every fixed $k \ge 4$ and every $\varepsilon > 0$, there is a fixed sentence $\varphi_\varepsilon$ in $\mathrm{PP}^{k}$ over a single binary relation symbol, depending on $\varepsilon$ but not on the input structure, whose evaluation cannot be performed in $O(m^{k-\varepsilon})$ time. For the tractable cases, we show that the evaluation problem can be solved in $2^{O(|\varphi|)} \cdot m^{k-\varepsilon}$ time for some $\varepsilon > 0$. Moreover, every tractable fragment reduces, with a $2^{O(|\varphi|)}$ blowup in formula size under DAG representations, to one of the following query languages: (1) Tarski's calculus of relations, (2) a new Boolean modal logic for sparse model checking, and (3) one-variable counting logic.
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Logic in Computer Science

Library-Grade Modal Logic

Modal logic comprises a broad family of logics to reason about relational structures. The literature presents many such logics, displaying diverse operators, semantics, and applications. This plurality is reflected in a zoo of mechanised modal logics, which often duplicate syntax, semantics, metatheory, and reasoning infrastructure. We present a library-grade formalisation of modal logic in Lean, developed as part of CSLib (the Lean Computer Science Library) and designed around two complementary forms of reuse: vertical reuse, whereby specialised logics inherit from common abstractions, and horizontal reuse, whereby modal logic becomes a reasoning tool for independently formalised domains. Our development provides a generic framework for polyadic modal languages, reusable metatheory and proof automation, and derived interfaces for specialised modal logics. We exemplify our infrastructure by deriving basic modal logic, basic temporal logic, and Hennessy-Milner Logic; the latter subsumes and extends CSLib's previous implementation while reducing its logic-specific code by 67%. We further apply the same modal infrastructure to reasoning about mathematics (radicals of ideals), theory of programming languages (the type safety strategy for the simply typed $\lambda$-calculus), and concurrency theory (reasoning about processes in the Calculus of Communicating Systems). Our experience suggests that reuse, automation, and integration with the strong Lean ecosystem should be treated as first-class design concerns when formalising theories for shared libraries.
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Logic in Computer Science

Symbolic Search Is Not Exhausted: Persistent Proof-Space Exploration in Lean4

Formal theorem proving increasingly combines learned semantic guidance with verified symbolic execution. The quality of the symbolic search substrate therefore determines how much useful mathematical structure can be accumulated, reused, and exposed under a finite inference budget. We introduce ViaLean, a Lean4 prover that organizes symbolic reasoning as bounded exploration of a persistent proof-state graph. Its search preserves coverage across complementary reasoning modes, merges semantically equivalent goals, retains verified intermediate structure, and observes short symbolic futures before committing to a transition. On the complete miniF2F test split, the model-free configuration solves 122/244 problems (50.0% pass@1). Historical and recent symbolic reference points range from Lean's earlier tidy search to modern grind and SMT-backed verification, showing that proof-space organization remains a substantial source of capability. The same persistent state also provides a natural interface for neural–symbolic agents: neural reasoning can operate over verified regions and intermediate objects while Lean continuously expands and validates the local proof space.
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Logic in Computer Science

Two generalizations of shininess

Shininess is one of the main theory combination methods in Satisfiability Modulo Theories. We present two infinite families of generalizations of it: one involving a property between gentleness and shininess, which helps us see gentleness itself as a variation of shininess; and another having no further computability requirements on the weaker theory, in addition dropping the need for smoothness. We prove these methods sharp, and compare them with existing methods.
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Friday 2 October

Logic in Computer Science

Solving VeriContest with a Lean-Backed Rust Verifier

VeriContest is a benchmark of 1007 competitive-programming problems in Rust, each with a Verus specification, a judge-accepted solution, and a Verus proof. Its authors report that proof generation is the bottleneck for frontier models: given the specification and the code, the best model produces an accepted Verus proof for 13.95% of the problems on the first attempt. We report on solving the same proof-generation task with Rust-Prover, a verifier for Rust backed by Lean 4. The Verus specification and the Rust code are restated and translated into Lean, each specification becomes a theorem, and agents prove the theorems with Lean's kernel as the final check. All 1325 theorems of all 1007 problems were proved. 1259 of them were proved in one run of under 32 hours on Claude Opus 5.5, at a median of 3.2 minutes and $1.17 per proof, and 70% of them on the first iteration. The restated specifications were checked against the benchmark's test suites, and reviewed where no suite applies. None was wrong or weakened. The translated Lean programs were run on 21,413 of the benchmark's test cases and produced the same output as the Rust programs on every one. Across four Claude and four GPT models at five reasoning-effort settings, every current frontier model proves nearly all of a ten-theorem sample at every setting, and more effort raises the cost without raising the number of proofs. The cheapest Claude setting, Sonnet 5.5 at low effort, proves all of the 50 hardest theorems. We also rerun the benchmark's own Verus protocol with Claude Opus 5.5 on the 50 problems with the longest reference proofs. Opus 5.5 alone fails to prove one of them.
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All authors Traian Serbanuta, Jun Xu, Andrei Stefanescu, Cosmin Radoi

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

Counterexamples to the Strong Roberson Conjecture

We refute the Strong Roberson Conjecture, which asserts that adding any graph outside a class closed under minors and disjoint unions strictly increases the distinguishing power of homomorphism counts from that class. More precisely, we construct connected graphs $H$ for which counts from graphs excluding $H$ as a minor determine the number of homomorphisms from $H$ to any target graph. We also refute the analogous conjecture with immersions in place of minors. We give explicit infinite families of excluded graphs, including cubic bipartite graphs that yield counterexamples for both relations. The proof introduces a method for deriving exact homomorphism count dependence from modular equivalences. We obtain these equivalences for infinitely many primes using prime-order automorphisms of graphs that exclude their orbit quotients as minors or immersions.
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Logic in Computer Science

Symbolic Execution of Constrained Horn Clauses

Constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) are a fragment of first-order logic widely used as an intermediate language for verification. We study constrained resolution as a calculus for reasoning about the satisfiability of sets of CHCs. Constrained resolution forms a simple alternative to model checking algorithms such as CEGAR and IC3 and is here shown to exhibit complementary features. We show that, when CHCs encode programs, forward symbolic execution corresponds to positive unit hyper-resolution, and backward symbolic execution to SLD resolution, which are special cases of constrained resolution. We formalize forward and backward reasoning for linear and non-linear CHCs and transition systems, prove refutational completeness under fair strategies, and develop subsumption criteria for pruning redundant derivations. We moreover show that backward resolution with subsumption generalizes $k$-induction to non-linear CHCs, and that forward constrained resolution is related to the problem of constructing proofs in incorrectness logic. Lastly, we provide an experimental evaluation in the Eldarica CHC solver on benchmarks from CHC-COMP.
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Logic in Computer Science

Response Variability and Stability in Human Reasoning

Understanding how humans reason – and how reasoning responses vary across tasks and individuals – remains a core challenge for modeling and explanation in cognitive science. We investigate the stability of response patterns within reasoners and whether variation in these patterns can be used to predict learning effects. We introduce a formal, geometry-based method to quantify distances between individual reasoning patterns and their internal variability, grounded in heuristic theories. The proposed framework is tested against experimental data via generalized linear mixed-effects models and clustering, where we find that our proposed variation measure interacts with correctness to predict performance gains. Moreover, we find that reasoning patterns are stable over time within the same reasoner. The method is general enough to be applied to other reasoning domains.
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Logic in Computer Science

An Applicative Multiset Path Order (Extended Version)

We present a variant of the multiset path order for untyped applicative term rewriting. Compared to existing work, our variant incorporates two distinctive features, dubbed arity assignment and reification, to overcome difficulties in handling partial and variable application.
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All authors Nao Hirokawa, Teppei Saito, Teppei Tanaka, Wataru Yachi

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

VeriPy Source-Preserving Verification and Compatibility Checking for Python Components

Keeping a Python program and its formal guarantees aligned is a continuing maintenance problem. Specifications must describe the implementation that actually runs, and updates must preserve the behavior on which existing callers depend. VeriPy brings these obligations into a common workflow for annotated Python components. Developers and agents express contracts, invariants, and proof hooks as Python comments, then refine checked auxiliary lemmas using source-located diagnostics. Direct encoders produce Dafny or Lean artifacts while retaining admitted executable bodies and explicit models of their dependencies. A relational product checks whether an updated component still admits old inputs and preserves returned values and modeled exceptions. The resulting workflow connects source-level proof development with functional verification and backward compatibility, recording the assumptions under which each guarantee applies. The code is available at https://github.com/astrio-labs/veripy.
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