Proof Compression via Subatomic Logic and Guarded Substitutions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Barrett, Victoria, Guglielmi, Alessio, Ralph, Benjamin, Straßburger, Lutz
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Barrett, Victoria
Guglielmi, Alessio
Ralph, Benjamin
Straßburger, Lutz
author_facet Barrett, Victoria
Guglielmi, Alessio
Ralph, Benjamin
Straßburger, Lutz
contents Subatomic logic is a recent innovation in structural proof theory where atoms are no longer the smallest entity in a logical formula, but are instead treated as binary connectives. As a consequence, we can give a subatomic proof system for propositional classical logic such that all derivations are strictly linear: no inference step deletes or adds information, even units. In this paper, we introduce a powerful new proof compression mechanism that we call guarded substitutions, a variant of explicit substitutions, which substitute only guarded occurrences of a free variable, instead of all free occurrences. This allows us to construct ''superpositions'' of derivations, which simultaneously represent multiple subderivations. We show that a subatomic proof system with guarded substitution can p-simulate a Frege system with substitution, and moreover, the cut-rule is not required to do so.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_20009
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Proof Compression via Subatomic Logic and Guarded Substitutions
Barrett, Victoria
Guglielmi, Alessio
Ralph, Benjamin
Straßburger, Lutz
Logic in Computer Science
03F03
F.4.1
Subatomic logic is a recent innovation in structural proof theory where atoms are no longer the smallest entity in a logical formula, but are instead treated as binary connectives. As a consequence, we can give a subatomic proof system for propositional classical logic such that all derivations are strictly linear: no inference step deletes or adds information, even units. In this paper, we introduce a powerful new proof compression mechanism that we call guarded substitutions, a variant of explicit substitutions, which substitute only guarded occurrences of a free variable, instead of all free occurrences. This allows us to construct ''superpositions'' of derivations, which simultaneously represent multiple subderivations. We show that a subatomic proof system with guarded substitution can p-simulate a Frege system with substitution, and moreover, the cut-rule is not required to do so.
title Proof Compression via Subatomic Logic and Guarded Substitutions
topic Logic in Computer Science
03F03
F.4.1
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.20009