This second edition explains what automated reasoning is and what it can do, and then demonstrates how to use it to solve complex problems with applications in logic circuit design, circuit validation, real-time system design, and expert systems.

A one-stop reference, self-contained, with theoretical topics presented in conjunction with implementations for which code is supplied.

This Festschrift volume is published in memory of William W. McCune who passed away in 2011. William W. McCune was an accomplished computer scientist all around but especially a fantastic system builder and software engineer. The volume includes 13 full papers, which are presenting research in all aspects of automated reasoning and its applications to mathematics. These papers have been thoroughly reviewed and selected out of 15 submissions received in response to the call for paper issued in September 2011. The topics covered are: strategies, indexing, superposition-based theorem proving, model building, application of automated reasoning to mathematics, as well as to program verification, data mining, and computer formalized mathematics.

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence researchers have largely focused their efforts on solving specific problems, with less emphasis on 'the big picture' - automating large scale tasks which require human-level intelligence to undertake. The subject of this book, automated theory formation in mathematics, is such a large scale task. Automated theory formation requires the invention of new concepts, the calculating of examples, the making of conjectures and the proving of theorems. This book, representing four years of PhD work by Dr. Simon Colton demonstrates how theory formation can be automated. Building on over 20 years of research into constructing an automated mathematician carried out in Professor Alan Bundy's mathematical reasoning group in Edinburgh, Dr. Colton has implemented the HR system as a solution to the problem of forming theories by computer. HR uses various pieces of mathematical software, including automated theorem provers, model generators and databases, to build a theory from the bare minimum of information - the axioms of a domain. The main application of this work has been mathematical discovery, and HR has had many successes. In particular, it has invented 20 new types of number of sufficient interest to be accepted into the Encyclopaedia of Integer Sequences, a repository of over 60,000 sequences contributed by many (human) mathematicians.

This collection of essays examines the key achievements and likely developments in the area of automated reasoning. In keeping with the group ethos, Automated Reasoning is interpreted liberally, spanning underpinning theory, tools for reasoning, argumentation, explanation, computational creativity, and pedagogy. Wider applications including secure and trustworthy software, and health care and emergency management. The book starts with a technically oriented history of the Edinburgh Automated Reasoning Group, written by Alan Bundy, which is followed by chapters from leading researchers associated with the group. Mathematical Reasoning: The History and Impact of the DReaM Group will attract considerable interest from researchers and practitioners of Automated Reasoning, including postgraduates. It should also be of interest to those researching the history of AI.

Mathematicians at every level use diagrams to prove theorems. Mathematical Reasoning with Diagrams investigates the possibilities of mechanizing this sort of diagrammatic reasoning in a formal computer proof system, even offering a semi-automatic formal proof system—called Diamond—which allows users to prove arithmetical theorems using diagrams.

methods, description logics and related logics, sati?ability modulo theory, decidable logics, reasoning about programs, and higher-order logics.

Most appealing - and sometimes even stirring - is a well-constructed case showing that, without doubt, some given assertion holds. Typically, such a case is based on logical and flawless reasoning, on a sequence of steps that follow inevitably from the hypotheses used to deduce each. In other words, a proof is given establishing that the assertion under consideration indeed holds. Such proofs are clearly crucial to logic and to mathematics. Not so obvious, but true, proofs are crucial to circuit design, program writing, and, more generally, to various activities in which reasoning plays a vital role. Indeed, most desirable is the case in which no doubt exists regarding the absence of flaws in the design of a chip, in the structure of a computer program, in the argument on which an important decision is based. Such careful reasoning is even the key factor in games that include chess and poker. This book features one example after another of flawless logical reasoning the context is that of finding proofs absent from the literature. The means for finding the missing proofs is reliance on a single computer program, William McCune's automated reasoning program OTTER. One motivating force for writing this book is to interest others in automated reasoning, logic and mathematics. As the text strongly indicates, we delight in using OTTER equally in two quite distinct activities: finding a proof where none is offered by the literature, and finding a proof far more appealing than any the literature provides. We believe that the challenge offered by the type of problem featured in this book can be as engrossing as solving puzzles and playing various games that appeal to the mind. Indeed,sometimes, inexpressible is the excitement engendered when seeking a proof with fewer steps than was found by one of the great minds of the twentieth century. A second motivating force resets with our obvious enjoyment of the type of research featured in this book. Like the fancier of fine wines, we continually seek new open questions to attack, whether (at one end of the spectrum) they concern the settling of a conjecture or (at the other end) the focus is on proof betterment. We encourage readers to send us additional open questions and challenging problems. Another factor that motivated us was our wish to collect in a single volume a surprisingly large number of proofs, most of which were previously absent from the literature. In some cases, no proof was offered of any type; in some cases, the proof that was offered was far from axiomatic. None of the proofs rely on induction, or on metal argument, or on higher-order logic. In one sense, the book can serve as an encyclopedia of proofs -- many new and many improved - a work that sometimes extends, sometimes replaces, and sometimes supplements the research of more than a century. These proofs offer the implicit challenge of finding others that are further improvements. In a rather different sense, the book may serve as the key to eventually answering one open question after another, whether the context is logic, mathematics, design, synthesis, or some other area relying on sound reasoning. In that regards, we include in details numerous diverse methodologies are themselves intriguing. For an example, one methodology asks for two independent paths that lead to success and, rather than emphasizing what is common to both (theirintersection), instead heavily focuses on what is not shared (their symmetric difference). Although the emphasis here is on their use in the context of logic and mathematics, we conjecture that the methodologies we offer will prove most useful in a far wider context. We also suspect that, especially for those who enjoy solving puzzles and unraveling the mysteries of sciences, the nature of the methodologies will provide substantial stimulation. This volume introduce some readers to the excitement of discovering new results, increase the intrigue of those already familiar with such excitement, and (for the expert) add to the arsenal of weapons for attacking deep questions and hard problems.

Rippling is a radically new technique for the automation of mathematical reasoning. It is widely applicable whenever a goal is to be proved from one or more syntactically similar givens. It was originally developed for inductive proofs, where the goal was the induction conclusion and the givens were the induction hypotheses. It has proved to be applicable to a much wider class of tasks, from summing series via analysis to general equational reasoning. The application to induction has especially important practical implications in the building of dependable IT systems, and provides solutions to issues such as the problem of combinatorial explosion. Rippling is the first of many new search control techniques based on formula annotation; some additional annotated reasoning techniques are also described here. This systematic and comprehensive introduction to rippling, and to the wider subject of automated inductive theorem proving, will be welcomed by researchers and graduate students alike.

Describes the use of computer programs to check several proofs in the foundations of mathematics.