Tableau method for residuated logic

Abstract

Residuated logic is a generalization of intuitionistic logic, which does not assume the idempotence of the conjunction operator. Such generalized conjunction operators have proved important in expert systems (in the area of Approximate Reasoning) and in some areas of Theoretical Computer Science. Here we generalize the intuitionistic tableau procedure and prove that this generalized tableau method is sound for the semantics (the class of residuated algebras) of residuated propositional calculus (RPC). Since the axioms of RPC are complete for the semantics we may conclude that whenever a formula 0 is tableau provable, it is deducible in RPC. We present two different approaches for constructing residuated algebras which give us countermodels for some formulas φ which are not tableau provable. The first uses the fact that the theory of residuated algebras is equational, to construct quotients of free algebras. The second uses finite algebras. We end by discussing a number of open questions.