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What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?

Dennis, Louise Abigail; Nogueira, Pablo

Authors

Louise Abigail Dennis

Pablo Nogueira



Contributors

Joe Hurd
Editor

Edward Smith
Editor

Ashish Darbari
Editor

Abstract

This paper reports an investigation into the link between failed proofs and non-theorems. It seeks to answer the question of whether anything more can be learned from a failed proof attempt than can be discovered from a counter-example. We suggest that the branch of the proof in which failure occurs can be mapped back to the segments of code that are the culprit, helping to locate the error.

This process of tracing provides finer grained isolation of the offending code fragments than is possible from the inspection of counter-examples. We also discuss ideas for how such a process could be automated.

Citation

Dennis, L. A., & Nogueira, P. (2005). What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?. In J. Hurd, E. Smith, & A. Darbari (Eds.),

Conference Name Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics: Emerging Trends Proceedings
Publication Date Jan 1, 2005
Deposit Date Nov 14, 2005
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1020278
Additional Information Proceedings published as Programming Research Group Research Report, PRG-RR-05-02.

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