Automated Deduction for Verification

Abstract

Automated deduction uses computation to perform symbolic logical reasoning. It has been a core technology for program verification from the very beginning. Satisfiability solvers for propositional and first-order logic significantly automate the task of deductive program verification. We introduce some of the basic deduction techniques used in software and hardware verification and outline the theoretical and engineering issues in building deductive verification tools. Beyond verification, deduction techniques can also be used to support a variety of applications including planning, program optimization, and program synthesis.