Generating Theorems by Generating Proof Structures

📅 2026-02-17
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180K/year
🤖 AI Summary
This work investigates the goal-directed generation of mathematically meaningful theorems—or lemmas suitable for automated proof—from a given set of axioms. To this end, it introduces a novel approach grounded in the propositions-as-types paradigm, which systematically partitions the space of proof terms according to inductive levels and integrates proof-term enumeration with compression techniques, including separation-based reduction, DAG compression, and combinatory logic. This framework enables the efficient construction and compact representation of proof structures. Experimental evaluation on a fragment of Metamath’s set.mm library demonstrates that the method successfully produces nontrivial and semantically relevant theorems, thereby confirming its feasibility and advantages in the context of automated theorem discovery.

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Application Category

📝 Abstract
We address generating theorems from a given set of axioms, without proof goal, aiming at value from a mathematical point of view or as lemmas for automated proving. As benchmark, we convert a fragment of the Metamath database set.mm. Our techniques are centered on proof terms and condensed detachment, which ties in with approaches to automated first-order proving by proof structure enumeration, and links to Metamath as well as to formulas-as-types. Our methods for generating theorems are based on partitioning the set of proof terms into inductively characterized levels. We study two ideas for improvement: Lemma synthesis by DAG compression of proof term sets and incorporating combinators into proof term construction.
Problem

Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.

theorem generation
automated reasoning
proof structures
lemma synthesis
axiomatic systems
Innovation

Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.

proof term enumeration
condensed detachment
DAG compression
lemma synthesis
combinatory logic
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