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This paper considers the computational hardness of computing expected outcomes and deciding (universal) (positive) almost-sure termination of probabilistic programs. It is shown that computing lower and upper bounds of expected outcomes is…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2015-06-08 Benjamin Lucien Kaminski , Joost-Pieter Katoen

The termination behavior of probabilistic programs depends on the outcomes of random assignments. Almost sure termination (AST) is concerned with the question whether a program terminates with probability one on all possible inputs.…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2021-01-29 Marcel Moosbrugger , Ezio Bartocci , Joost-Pieter Katoen , Laura Kovács

We lay out novel foundations for the computer-aided verification of guaranteed bounds on expected outcomes of imperative probabilistic programs featuring (i) general loops, (ii) continuous distributions, and (iii) conditioning. To handle…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-02-27 Kevin Batz , Joost-Pieter Katoen , Francesca Randone , Tobias Winkler

Linear Recurrence Sequences (LRS) are a fundamental mathematical primitive for a plethora of applications such as the verification of probabilistic systems, model checking, computational biology, and economics. Positivity (are all terms of…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2023-07-14 Mihir Vahanwala

We study the termination problem for probabilistic term rewrite systems. We prove that the interpretation method is sound and complete for a strengthening of positive almost sure termination, when abstract reduction systems and term rewrite…

Symbolic Computation · Computer Science 2018-02-28 Martin Avanzini , Ugo Dal Lago , Akihisa Yamada

Extending our own and others' earlier approaches to reasoning about termination of probabilistic programs, we propose and prove a new rule for termination with probability one, also known as "almost-certain termination". The rule uses both…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2017-01-09 Annabelle McIver , Carroll Morgan

Computing reachability probabilities is a fundamental problem in the analysis of probabilistic programs. This paper aims at a comprehensive and comparative account on various martingale-based methods for over- and under-approximating…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2018-11-16 Toru Takisaka , Yuichiro Oyabu , Natsuki Urabe , Ichiro Hasuo

This Survey provides an overview of techniques in termination analysis for programs with numerical variables and transitions defined by linear constraints. This subarea of program analysis is challenging due to the existence of undecidable…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Amir M. Ben-Amram , Samir Genaim , Joël Ouaknine , James Worrell

The Robbins-Siegmund theorem establishes the convergence of stochastic processes that are almost supermartingales and is one of the most commonly used approaches for analyzing stochastic iterative algorithms in stochastic approximation and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-28 Xinyu Liu , Zixuan Xie , Shangtong Zhang

Randomized higher-order computation can be seen as being captured by a lambda calculus endowed with a single algebraic operation, namely a construct for binary probabilistic choice. What matters about such computations is the probability of…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2020-12-24 Ugo Dal Lago , Claudia Faggian , Simona Ronchi Della Rocca

A risk-aware decision-making problem can be formulated as a chance-constrained linear program in probability measure space. Chance-constrained linear program in probability measure space is intractable, and no numerical method exists to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-21 Xun Shen , Satoshi Ito

In the last two decades, there has been much progress on model checking of both probabilistic systems and higher-order programs. In spite of the emergence of higher-order probabilistic programming languages, not much has been done to…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2023-06-22 Naoki Kobayashi , Ugo Dal Lago , Charles Grellois

The general setting of this work is the constraint-based synthesis of termination arguments. We consider a restricted class of programs called lasso programs. The termination argument for a lasso program is a pair of a ranking function and…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2014-01-22 Matthias Heizmann , Jochen Hoenicke , Jan Leike , Andreas Podelski

Essential tasks for the verification of probabilistic programs include bounding expected outcomes and proving termination in finite expected runtime. We contribute a simple yet effective inductive synthesis approach for proving such…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2023-02-09 Kevin Batz , Mingshuai Chen , Sebastian Junges , Benjamin Lucien Kaminski , Joost-Pieter Katoen , Christoph Matheja

We consider imperative programs that involve both randomization and pure nondeterminism. The central question is how to find a strategy resolving the pure nondeterminism such that the so-obtained determinized program satisfies a given…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2023-11-15 Kevin Batz , Tom Jannik Biskup , Joost-Pieter Katoen , Tobias Winkler

In a common formulation of semi-infinite programs, the infinite constraint set is a requirement that a function parametrized by the decision variables is nonnegative over an interval. If this function is sufficiently closely approximable by…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-03-24 Dávid Papp

We present a data-driven approach to the quantitative verification of probabilistic programs and stochastic dynamical models. Our approach leverages neural networks to compute tight and sound bounds for the probability that a stochastic…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2026-04-22 Alessandro Abate , Alec Edwards , Mirco Giacobbe , Hashan Punchihewa , Diptarko Roy

We introduce a system of monadic affine sized types, which substantially generalise usual sized types, and allows this way to capture probabilistic higher-order programs which terminate almost surely. Going beyond plain, strong…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2017-01-17 Ugo Dal Lago , Charles Grellois

In this paper we study the complexity of the problems: given a loop, described by linear constraints over a finite set of variables, is there a linear or lexicographical-linear ranking function for this loop? While existence of such…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2025-09-30 Amir M. Ben-Amram , Samir Genaim

We consider the problem of formally verifying almost-sure (a.s.) asymptotic stability in discrete-time nonlinear stochastic control systems. While verifying stability in deterministic control systems is extensively studied in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-20 Mathias Lechner , Đorđe Žikelić , Krishnendu Chatterjee , Thomas A. Henzinger