Inductive First-Order Formula Synthesis by ASP: A Case Study in Invariant Inference

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Ziyi, Pîrlea, George, Sergey, Ilya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Yang, Ziyi
Pîrlea, George
Sergey, Ilya
author_facet Yang, Ziyi
Pîrlea, George
Sergey, Ilya
contents We present a framework for synthesising formulas in first-order logic (FOL) from examples, which unifies and advances state-of-the-art approaches for inference of transition system invariants. To do so, we study and categorise the existing methodologies, encoding techniques in their formula synthesis via answer set programming (ASP). Based on the derived categorisation, we propose orthogonal slices, a new technique for formula enumeration that partitions the search space into manageable chunks, enabling two approaches for incremental candidate pruning. Using a combination of existing techniques for first-order (FO) invariant synthesis and the orthogonal slices implemented in our framework FORCE, we significantly accelerate a state-of-the-art algorithm for distributed system invariant inference. We also show that our approach facilitates composition of different invariant inference frameworks, allowing for novel optimisations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_03854
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Inductive First-Order Formula Synthesis by ASP: A Case Study in Invariant Inference
Yang, Ziyi
Pîrlea, George
Sergey, Ilya
Programming Languages
Logic in Computer Science
F.3.1; I.2.2; I.2.3
We present a framework for synthesising formulas in first-order logic (FOL) from examples, which unifies and advances state-of-the-art approaches for inference of transition system invariants. To do so, we study and categorise the existing methodologies, encoding techniques in their formula synthesis via answer set programming (ASP). Based on the derived categorisation, we propose orthogonal slices, a new technique for formula enumeration that partitions the search space into manageable chunks, enabling two approaches for incremental candidate pruning. Using a combination of existing techniques for first-order (FO) invariant synthesis and the orthogonal slices implemented in our framework FORCE, we significantly accelerate a state-of-the-art algorithm for distributed system invariant inference. We also show that our approach facilitates composition of different invariant inference frameworks, allowing for novel optimisations.
title Inductive First-Order Formula Synthesis by ASP: A Case Study in Invariant Inference
topic Programming Languages
Logic in Computer Science
F.3.1; I.2.2; I.2.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03854