Abstract
The paper studies the automation of minimal model inference, i.e., determining whether a formula is true in every minimal model of the premises. A novel tableau calculus for prepositional minimal model reasoning is presented in two steps. First an analytic clausal tableau calculus employing a restricted cut rule is introduced. Then the calculus is extended to handle minimal model inference by employing a groundedness property of minimal models. A decision procedure based on the basic calculus is devised and then it is extended to minimal model inference. The basic decision procedure and its extension enjoy some interesting properties. When deciding logical consequence, the basic procedure explores the search space of counter-models with a preference to minimal models and each counter-model is not generated more than once. The procedures can be implemented to run in polynomial space, and they provide polynomial time decision procedures for Horn clauses. The extended decision procedure can also be used to finding all minimal models of a set of clauses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
F. Bry and A. Yahya. Minimal model generation with positive unit hyper-resolution tableaux. In Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Theorem Proving with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods, pages 143–159, Terrasini, Italy, May 1996. Springer-Verlag. (This volume).
C. Chang and R. Lee. Symbolic Logic and Mechanical Theorem Proving. Academic Press, New York, 1973.
M. D'Agostino and M. Mondadori. The taming of the cut. Journal of Logic and Computation, 4:285–319, 1994.
T. Eiter and G. Gottlob. Propositional circumscription and extended closed world reasoning are Π p2 -complete. Theoretical Computer Science, 114:231–245, 1993.
R. Emery. Computing circumscriptive databases. Master's Thesis, University of Maryland, 1992.
M. Fitting. First-Order Logic and Automated Theorem Proving. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1990.
D.M. Gabbay, C.J. Hogger, and J.A. Robinson, editors. Handbook of Logic and Artificial Intelligence and Logic Programming, Volume 3: Nonmonotonic Reasoning and Uncertain Reasoning. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
M.L. Ginsberg. A circumscriptive theorem prover. Artificial Intelligence, 39:209–230, 1989.
K. Inoue, M. Koshimura, and R. Hasegawa. Embedding negation as failure into a model generation theorem prover. In The 11th International Conference on Automated Deduction, pages 400–415, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA, June 1992. Springer-Verlag.
R. Manthey and F. Bry. SATCHMO: a theorem prover implemented in Prolog. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Automated Deduction, pages 415–434, Argonne, USA, May 1988. Springer-Verlag.
A. Nerode, R.T. Ng, and V.S. Subrahmanian. Computing circumscriptive databases: I. theory and algorithms. Information and Computation, 116:58–80, 1995.
N. Olivetti. A tableaux and sequent calculus for minimal entailment. Journal of Automated Reasoning, 9:99–139, 1992.
T.C. Przymusinski. An algorithm to compute circumscription. Artificial Intelligence, 38:49–73, 1989.
T.C. Przymusinski. Static semantics for normal and disjunctive logic programs. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, Special Issue on Disjunctive Programs, 1995. To appear.
R.M. Smullyan. First-Order Logic. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1968.
A. Yahya, J.A. Fernandez, and J. Minker. Ordered model trees: A normal form for disjunctive deductive databases. Journal of Automated Reasoning, 13(1):117–144, 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Niemelä, I. (1996). A tableau calculus for minimal model reasoning. In: Miglioli, P., Moscato, U., Mundici, D., Ornaghi, M. (eds) Theorem Proving with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods. TABLEAUX 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1071. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61208-4_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61208-4_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61208-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68368-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive