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We are interested in proving satisfiability of Constrained Horn Clauses (CHCs) over Algebraic Data Types (ADTs). We propose to prove satisfiability by building a tree automaton recognizing the Herbrand model of the CHCs. If such an…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-10-31 Gregoire Maire , Thomas Genet

Higher-order constrained Horn clauses (HoCHC) are a semantically-invariant system of higher-order logic modulo theories. With semi-decidable unsolvability over a semi-decidable background theory, HoCHC is suitable for safety verification.…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2021-09-13 Jerome Jochems

Relational verification is a technique that aims at proving properties that relate two different program fragments, or two different program runs. It has been shown that constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) can effectively be used for relational…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2017-09-15 Emanuele De Angelis , Fabio Fioravanti , Alberto Pettorossi , Maurizio Proietti

We present Ultimate TreeAutomizer, a solver for satisfiability of sets of constrained Horn clauses. Constrained Horn clauses (CHC) are a fragment of first order logic with attractive properties in terms of expressiveness and accessibility…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2019-07-10 Daniel Dietsch , Matthias Heizmann , Jochen Hoenicke , Alexander Nutz , Andreas Podelski

In this paper, we show how the notion of tree dimension can be used in the verification of constrained Horn clauses (CHCs). The dimension of a tree is a numerical measure of its branching complexity and the concept here applies to Horn…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2018-03-07 Bishoksan Kafle , John P. Gallagher , Pierre Ganty

Verification conditions (VCs) are logical formulas whose satisfiability guarantees program correctness. We consider VCs in the form of constrained Horn clauses (CHC) which are automatically generated from the encoding of (an interpreter of)…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2016-07-18 Emanuele De Angelis , Fabio Fioravanti , Alberto Pettorossi , Maurizio Proietti

We propose a novel approach to satisfiability checking of Constrained Horn Clauses (CHCs) over Algebraic Data Types (ADTs). CHC-based automated verification has gained considerable attention in recent years, leading to the development of…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-07-29 Hiroyuki Katsura , Naoki Kobayashi , Ken Sakayori , Ryosuke Sato

Solving constraints involving inductive (aka recursive) definitions is challenging. State-of-the-art SMT/CHC solvers and first-order logic provers provide only limited support for solving such constraints, especially when they involve,…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2026-03-13 Weizhi Feng , Shidong Shen , Jiaxiang Liu , Taolue Chen , Fu Song , Zhilin Wu

The functional properties of a program are often specified by providing a contract for each of its functions. A contract of a function consists of a pair of formulas, called a precondition and a postcondition, which, respectively, should…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2022-11-23 Emanuele De Angelis , Fabio Fioravanti , Alberto Pettorossi , Maurizio Proietti

The use of temporal logics has long been recognised as a fundamental approach to the formal specification and verification of reactive systems. In this paper, we take on the problem of automatically verifying a temporal property, given by a…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2016-07-18 Tewodros A. Beyene , Corneliu Popeea , Andrey Rybalchenko

Building on the successes of satisfiability modulo theories (SMT), Bj{\o}rner et al. initiated a research programme advocating Horn constraints as a suitable basis for automatic program verification. The notion of first-order constrained…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2019-02-25 Long Pham , Steven J. Ramsay , C. -H. Luke Ong

Motivated by applications in automated verification of higher-order functional programs, we develop a notion of constrained Horn clauses in higher-order logic and a decision problem concerning their satisfiability. We show that, although…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2017-08-02 Toby Cathcart Burn , C. -H. Luke Ong , Steven J. Ramsay

We present a simple resolution proof system for higher-order constrained Horn clauses (HoCHC) - a system of higher-order logic modulo theories - and prove its soundness and refutational completeness w.r.t. the standard semantics. As…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2021-06-22 C. -H. Luke Ong , Dominik Wagner

We present initial limit Datalog, a new extensible class of constrained Horn clauses for which the satisfiability problem is decidable. The class may be viewed as a generalisation to higher-order logic (with a simple restriction on types)…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2021-04-30 Toby Cathcart Burn , Luke Ong , Steven Ramsay , Dominik Wagner

We show how automatic tools for the verification of linear and branching time properties of procedural, multi-threaded, and functional programs as well as program synthesis can be naturally and uniformly seen as solvers of constraints in…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2014-06-02 Andrey Rybalchenko

Theta is a verification framework that has participated in the CHC-COMP competition since 2023. While its core approach -- based on transforming constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) into control-flow automata (CFAs) for analysis -- has remained…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-10-31 Levente Bajczi , Milán Mondok , Vince Molnár

Reduction to the satisfiability problem for constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) is a widely studied approach to automated program verification. The current CHC-based methods for pointer-manipulating programs, however, are not very scalable.…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2020-06-12 Yusuke Matsushita , Takeshi Tsukada , Naoki Kobayashi

Developing an efficient non-linear Horn clause solver is a challenging task since the solver has to reason about the tree structures rather than the linear ones as in a linear solver. In this paper we propose an incremental approach to…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2015-11-23 Bishoksan Kafle

We present a compositional SMT-based algorithm for safety of procedural C programs that takes the heap into consideration as well. Existing SMT-based approaches are either largely restricted to handling linear arithmetic operations and…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2015-08-07 Anvesh Komuravelli , Nikolaj Bjorner , Arie Gurfinkel , Kenneth L. McMillan

This work proposes a novel approach for automatic verification and synthesis of infinite-state reactive programs with respect to ${CTL}^*$ specifications, based on translation to Existential Horn Clauses (EHCs). $CTL^*$ is a powerful…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2026-05-13 Mishel Carelli , Orna Grumberg