Being Polite Is Not Enough (and Other Limits of Theory Combination)

Guilherme V. Toledo, Benjamin Przybocki, Yoni Zohar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In the Nelson–Oppen combination method for satisfiability modulo theories, the combined theories must be stably infinite; in gentle combination, one theory has to be gentle, and the other has to satisfy a similar yet weaker property; in shiny combination, only one has to be shiny (smooth, with a computable minimal model function and the finite model property); and for polite combination, only one has to be strongly polite (smooth and strongly finitely witnessable). For each combination method, we prove that if any of its assumptions are removed, then there is no general method to combine an arbitrary pair of theories satisfying the remaining assumptions. We also prove new theory combination results that weaken the assumptions of gentle and shiny combination.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAutomated Deduction - CADE 30 - 30th International Conference on Automated Deduction, 2025, Proceedings
EditorsClark Barrett, Uwe Waldmann
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages17-34
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9783031999833
DOIs
StatePublished - 2025
Event30th International Conference on Automated Deduction, CADE 2025 - Stuttgart, Germany
Duration: 28 Jul 202531 Jul 2025

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science
Volume15943 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference30th International Conference on Automated Deduction, CADE 2025
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityStuttgart
Period28/07/2531/07/25

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

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