Breaking the Mold: Nonlinear Ranking Function Synthesis Without Templates

Shaowei Zhu, Zachary Kincaid

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This paper studies the problem of synthesizing (lexicographic) polynomial ranking functions for loops that can be described in polynomial arithmetic over integers and reals. While the analogous ranking function synthesis problem for linear arithmetic is decidable, even checking whether a given function ranks an integer loop is undecidable in the nonlinear setting. We side-step the decidability barrier by working within the theory of linear integer/real rings (LIRR) rather than the standard model of arithmetic. We develop a termination analysis that is guaranteed to succeed if a loop (expressed as a formula) admits a (lexicographic) polynomial ranking function. In contrast to template-based ranking function synthesis in real arithmetic, our completeness result holds for lexicographic ranking functions of unbounded dimension and degree, and effectively subsumes linear lexicographic ranking function synthesis for linear integer loops.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationComputer Aided Verification - 36th International Conference, CAV 2024, Proceedings
EditorsArie Gurfinkel, Vijay Ganesh
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages431-452
Number of pages22
ISBN (Print)9783031656262
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024
Event36th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2024 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: Jul 24 2024Jul 27 2024

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume14681 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference36th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2024
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period7/24/247/27/24

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

Keywords

  • lexicographic ranking functions
  • monotone
  • nonlinear arithmetic
  • polynomial ranking functions
  • ranking functions
  • termination

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