On Higher-Order Reachability Games vs May Reachability

Abstract

We consider the reachability problem for higher-order functional programs and study the relationship between reachability games (i.e., the reachability problem for programs with angelic and demonic nondeterminism) and may-reachability (i.e., the reachability problem for programs with only angelic nondeterminism). We show that reachability games for order-n programs can be reduced to may-reachability problems for order(n + 1) programs, and vice versa. We formalize the reductions by using higher-order fixpoint logic and prove their correctness. We also discuss applications of the reductions to higher-order program verification.