The addition of bounded quantification and partial functions to a computational logic and its theorem prover

Abstract

We describe an extension to our quantifier-free computational logic to provide the expressive power and convenience of bounded quantifiers and partial functions. By quantifier we mean a formal construct which introduces a bound or indicial variable whose scope is some subexpression of the quantifier expression. A familiar quantifier is the Σ operator which sums the values of an expression over some range of values on the bound variable. Our method is to represent expressions of the logic as objects in the logic, to define an interpreter for such expressions as a function in the logic, and then define quantifiers as ‘mapping functions’. The novelty of our approach lies in the formalization of the interpreter and its interaction with the underlying logic. Our method has several advantages over other formal systems that provide quantifiers and partial functions in a logical setting. The most important advantage is that proofs not involving quantification or partial recursive functions are not complicated by such notions as ‘capturing’, ‘bottom’, or ‘continuity’. Naturally enough, our formalization of the partial functions is nonconstructive. The theorem prover for the logic has been modified to support these new features. We describe the modifications. The system has proved many theorems that could not previously be stated in our logic. Among them are:

• • classic quantifier manipulation theorems, such as

  $$\sum\limits_{{\text{l}} = 0}^{\text{n}} {{\text{g}}({\text{l}}) + {\text{h(l) = }}} \sum\limits_{{\text{l = }}0}^{\text{n}} {{\text{g}}({\text{l}})} + \sum\limits_{{\text{l = }}0}^{\text{n}} {{\text{h(l)}};} $$

• • elementary theorems involving quantifiers, such as the Binomial Theorem:

  $$(a + b)^{\text{n}} = \sum\limits_{{\text{l = }}0}^{\text{n}} {\left( {_{\text{i}}^{\text{n}} } \right)} \user2{ }{\text{a}}^{\text{l}} {\text{b}}^{{\text{n - l}}} ;$$

• • elementary theorems about ‘mapping functions’ such as:

  $$(FOLDR\user2{ }'PLUS\user2{ O L) = }\sum\limits_{{\text{i}} \in {\text{L}}}^{} {{\text{i}};} $$

• • termination properties of many partial recursive functions such as the fact that an application of the partial function described by

  $$\begin{gathered} (LEN X) \hfill \\ \Leftarrow \hfill \\ ({\rm I}F ({\rm E}QUAL X NIL) \hfill \\ {\rm O} \hfill \\ (ADD1 (LEN (CDR X)))) \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$

  terminates if and only if the argument ends in NIL;

• • theorems about functions satisfying unusual recurrence equations such as the 91-function and the following list reverse function:

  $$\begin{gathered} (RV X) \hfill \\ \Leftarrow \hfill \\ ({\rm I}F (AND (LISTP X) (LISTP (CDR X))) \hfill \\ (CONS (CAR (RV (CDR X))) \hfill \\ (RV (CONS (CAR X) \hfill \\ (RV (CDR (RV (CDR X))))))) \hfill \\ X). \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$