Symmetric Temporal Theorem Proving

Abstract

In this paper we consider the deductive verification of propositional temporal logic specifications of symmetric systems. In particular, we provide a heuristic approach to the scalability problems associated with analysing properties of large numbers of processes. Essentially, we use a temporal resolution procedure to verify properties of a system with few processes and then generalise the outcome in order to reduce the verification complexity of the same system with much larger numbers of processes. This provides a practical route to deductive verification for many systems comprising identical processes.