Translating higher-order problems to first-order clauses

Abstract

Proofs involving large specifications are typically carried out through interactive provers that use higher-order logic. A promising approach to improve the automation of interactive provers is by integrating them with automatic provers, which are usually based on first-order logic. Consequently, it is necessary to translate higher-order logic formulae to first-order form. This translation should ideally be both sound and practical. We have implemented three higher-order to first-order translations, with particular emphasis on the translation of types. Omitting some type information improves the success rate, but can be unsound, so the interactive prover must verify the proofs. In this paper, we will describe our translations and experimental data that compares the three translations in respect of their success rates for various automatic provers. Show more