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arXiv · 2105.14100

Latticed $k$-Induction with an Application to Probabilistic Programs

Kevin Batz·Mingshuai Chen·Benjamin Lucien Kaminski·Joost-Pieter Katoen·Christoph Matheja·Philipp Schröer
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Abstract

We revisit two well-established verification techniques, $k$-induction and bounded model checking (BMC), in the more general setting of fixed point theory over complete lattices. Our main theoretical contribution is latticed $k$-induction, which (i) generalizes classical $k$-induction for verifying transition systems, (ii) generalizes Park induction for bounding fixed points of monotonic maps on complete lattices, and (iii) extends from naturals $k$ to transfinite ordinals $\kappa$, thus yielding $\kappa$-induction. The lattice-theoretic understanding of $k$-induction and BMC enables us to apply both techniques to the fully automatic verification of infinite-state probabilistic programs. Our prototypical implementation manages to automatically verify non-trivial specifications for probabilistic programs taken from the literature that - using existing techniques - cannot be verified without synthesizing a stronger inductive invariant first.

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Kevin Batz, Mingshuai Chen, Benjamin Lucien Kaminski, Joost-Pieter Katoen, Christoph Matheja, Philipp Schröer. 2021-05-28. Latticed $k$-Induction with an Application to Probabilistic Programs. https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.14100

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