Challenge problems from nonassociative rings for theorem provers

Abstract

The Moufang Identities are proving to be a challenging set of problems for automated theorem proving programs. Aside from one program that uses a new technique that has the axioms of nonassociative ring theorem built in, I know of no other program able to prove these identities. In this short paper I include the axioms for nonassociative rings, statements of the five moufang identities, a natural hand proof of one of the left identities and a human guided paramodulation proof of the same identity. I hope that this paper will provide a starting point for others to attack these interesting problems.

This research supported in part by the Applied Mathematical Sciences subprogram of the office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract W-31-109-Eng-38.