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Static Slicing for Probabilistic Programs: An Overview

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Principles of Verification: Cycling the Probabilistic Landscape

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 15260))

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Abstract

Program slicing aims to simplify programs by identifying and removing non-essential parts while preserving program behavior. It is widely used for program understanding, debugging, and software maintenance. This paper provides an overview of slicing techniques for probabilistic programs, which blend traditional programming constructs with random sampling and conditioning. These programs have experienced a notable resurgence in recent years due to new applications in fields such as differential privacy and artificial intelligence.

We particularly focus on backward static slicing techniques, the most traditional form of program slicing. We review the foundational technique by Hur et al. and the subsequent developments by Amtoft and Banerjee, based on probabilistic control flow graphs. Through motivating examples and sketches of key definitions and results, we provide a clear, accessible, and self-contained presentation of slicing techniques for probabilistic programs.

This is partially funded by ANID Millennium Science Initiative Program code ICN17_002.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Formally, Amtoft and Banerjee adopt a variation of the notion of weakly control-closed set from [8], which always regards the exit node as “visible” and requires that all nodes outside Q—not only those reachable from Q—admit a next visible.

  2. 2.

    Formally, \(x \in \textsf{rv} _{Q}\left( n ' \right) \) iff there exists a path in the pCFG from \(n '\) to a node \(n '' \in Q\) such that \(n ''\) uses (i.e. reads) x and x is not defined (i.e. assigned) by any node in the path, except, possibly by \(n ''\).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department (DCC), University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Federico Olmedo

  2. Millennium Institute of Foundational Research on Data (IMFD), Santiago, Chile

    Federico Olmedo

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  1. Federico Olmedo
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Correspondence to Federico Olmedo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ruhr University Bochum and Radboud University Nijmegen, Bochum, Germany

    Nils Jansen

  2. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Sebastian Junges

  3. Saarland University and University College London, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Benjamin Lucien Kaminski

  4. University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Christoph Matheja

  5. RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Thomas Noll

  6. RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Tim Quatmann

  7. University of Twente and Radboud University Nijmegen, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Mariëlle Stoelinga

  8. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Matthias Volk

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Olmedo, F. (2025). Static Slicing for Probabilistic Programs: An Overview. In: Jansen, N., et al. Principles of Verification: Cycling the Probabilistic Landscape. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15260. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75783-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75783-9_7

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