arXiv subjects

Thomas Noll

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Noll.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Using GPUs And LLMs Can Be Satisfying for Nonlinear Real Arithmetic Problems

Solving quantifier-free non-linear real arithmetic (NRA) problems is a computationally hard task. To tackle this problem, prior work proposed a promising approach based on gradient descent. In this work, we extend their ideas and combine LLMs and GPU acceleration to obtain an efficient technique. We have implemented our findings in the novel SMT solver GANRA (GPU Accelerated solving of Nonlinear Real Arithmetic problems). We evaluate GANRA on two different NRA benchmarks and demonstrate significant improvements over the previous state of the art. In particular, on the Sturm-MBO benchmark, we can prove satisfiability for more than five times as many instances in less than 1/20th of the previous state-of-the-art runtime.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Transformations of Triads and Seventh Chords: Group Extensions and Duality

Transformational music theory, pioneered by David Lewin, uses simply transitive group actions to analyze music. In this paper, we construct a simply transitive group action on a disjoint union of two sets, built from a simply transitive action on each set and an equivariant bijection connecting them. Motivational examples are the omnibus progression and the reflected omnibus progression, which involve the consonant triads and the dominant/half-diminished seventh chords, connected by the inclusion bijection. We provide other examples from Jazz tunes. More generally, we combine multiple simply transitive group actions via a "meta-rotation"; examples include a simply transitive group acting on consonant triads and a variety of seventh chords, as well as a meta-rotation that realizes the root position seventh chord sequence of the flattening transformation (described by Clough-Douthett's J-function). The constructions in our theorems extend Lewin dual pairs to Lewin dual pairs. We formulate the constructions in terms of short exact sequences and central extensions as well. Contextual groups are also elucidated: the interval content of the generating pitch-class segment determines whether or not a generalized contextual group is generated by contextual inversions.

math.GR↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Tonality: A Mathemusical Playground

We adopt some basic ideas on quantum-theoretical modeling of tonal attraction and develop them further in an alternative direction. Fitting Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) to the Krumhansl-Kessler (KK) probe tone profiles for static attraction opens the possibility to investigate the underlying wave function as the stationary ground state of an anharmonic quantum oscillator with a schematic Hamiltonian involving a perturbation potential. We numerically verify the fulfilment of the associated stationary Schr\"odinger equation and also inspect its excited states as a solution basis for the corresponding time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. With their help we calculate the temporal evolution of any initial state. As an example, we study the dynamics of transpositions of the stationary KK wave function across Regener's line of fifths. This offers potential models for dynamic tonal attraction and also for the behavior of deflected key profiles within the Hamiltonian dynamics of a given tonality.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2022

Towards Concurrent Quantitative Separation Logic

In this paper, we develop a novel verification technique to reason about programs featuring concurrency, pointers and randomization. While the integration of concurrency and pointers is well studied, little is known about the combination of all three paradigms. To close this gap, we combine two kinds of separation logic -- Quantitative Separation Logic and Concurrent Separation Logic -- into a new separation logic that enables reasoning about lower bounds of the probability to realise a postcondition by executing such a program.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2022

Foundations for Entailment Checking in Quantitative Separation Logic (extended version)

Quantitative separation logic (QSL) is an extension of separation logic (SL) for the verification of probabilistic pointer programs. In QSL, formulae evaluate to real numbers instead of truth values, e.g., the probability of memory-safe termination in a given symbolic heap. As with \SL, one of the key problems when reasoning with QSL is \emph{entailment}: does a formula f entail another formula g? We give a generic reduction from entailment checking in QSL to entailment checking in SL. This allows to leverage the large body of SL research for the automated verification of probabilistic pointer programs. We analyze the complexity of our approach and demonstrate its applicability. In particular, we obtain the first decidability results for the verification of such programs by applying our reduction to a quantitative extension of the well-known symbolic-heap fragment of separation logic.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

Debona: Decoupled Boundary Network Analysis for Tighter Bounds and Faster Adversarial Robustness Proofs

Neural networks are commonly used in safety-critical real-world applications. Unfortunately, the predicted output is often highly sensitive to small, and possibly imperceptible, changes to the input data. Proving that either no such adversarial examples exist, or providing a concrete instance, is therefore crucial to ensure safe applications. As enumerating and testing all potential adversarial examples is computationally infeasible, verification techniques have been developed to provide mathematically sound proofs of their absence using overestimations of the network activations. We propose an improved technique for computing tight upper and lower bounds of these node values, based on increased flexibility gained by computing both bounds independently of each other. Furthermore, we gain an additional improvement by re-implementing part of the original state-of-the-art software "Neurify", leading to a faster analysis. Combined, these adaptations reduce the necessary runtime by up to 94%, and allow a successful search for networks and inputs that were previously too complex. We provide proofs for tight upper and lower bounds on max-pooling layers in convolutional networks. To ensure widespread usability, we open source our implementation "Debona", featuring both the implementation specific enhancements as well as the refined boundary computation for faster and more exact~results.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2018

Quantitative Separation Logic - A Logic for Reasoning about Probabilistic Programs

We present quantitative separation logic ($\mathsf{QSL}$). In contrast to classical separation logic, $\mathsf{QSL}$ employs quantities which evaluate to real numbers instead of predicates which evaluate to Boolean values. The connectives of classical separation logic, separating conjunction and separating implication, are lifted from predicates to quantities. This extension is conservative: Both connectives are backward compatible to their classical analogs and obey the same laws, e.g. modus ponens, adjointness, etc. Furthermore, we develop a weakest precondition calculus for quantitative reasoning about probabilistic pointer programs in $\mathsf{QSL}$. This calculus is a conservative extension of both Reynolds' separation logic for heap-manipulating programs and Kozen's / McIver and Morgan's weakest preexpectations for probabilistic programs. Soundness is proven with respect to an operational semantics based on Markov decision processes. Our calculus preserves O'Hearn's frame rule, which enables local reasoning. We demonstrate that our calculus enables reasoning about quantities such as the probability of terminating with an empty heap, the probability of reaching a certain array permutation, or the expected length of a list.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2018

Graph-Based Shape Analysis Beyond Context-Freeness

We develop a shape analysis for reasoning about relational properties of data structures. Both the concrete and the abstract domain are represented by hypergraphs. The analysis is parameterized by user-supplied indexed graph grammars to guide concretization and abstraction. This novel extension of context-free graph grammars is powerful enough to model complex data structures such as balanced binary trees with parent pointers, while preserving most desirable properties of context-free graph grammars. One strength of our analysis is that no artifacts apart from grammars are required from the user; it thus offers a high degree of automation. We implemented our analysis and successfully applied it to various programs manipulating AVL trees, (doubly-linked) lists, and combinations of both.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2017

Pairwise Well-Formed Modes and Transformations

One of the most significant attitudinal shifts in the history of music occurred in the Renaissance, when an emerging triadic consciousness moved musicians towards a new scalar formation that placed major thirds on a par with perfect fifths. In this paper we revisit the confrontation between the two idealized scalar and modal conceptions, that of the ancient and medieval world and that of the early modern world, associated especially with Zarlino. We do this at an abstract level, in the language of algebraic combinatorics on words. In scale theory the juxtaposition is between well-formed and pairwise well-formed scales and modes, expressed in terms of Christoffel words or standard words and their conjugates, and the special Sturmian morphisms that generate them. Pairwise well-formed scales are encoded by words over a three-letter alphabet, and in our generalization we introduce special positive automorphisms of $F3$, the free group over three letters.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Unified Reasoning about Robustness Properties of Symbolic-Heap Separation Logic

We introduce heap automata, a formalism for automatic reasoning about robustness properties of the symbolic heap fragment of separation logic with user-defined inductive predicates. Robustness properties, such as satisfiability, reachability, and acyclicity, are important for a wide range of reasoning tasks in automated program analysis and verification based on separation logic. Previously, such properties have appeared in many places in the separation logic literature, but have not been studied in a systematic manner. In this paper, we develop an algorithmic framework based on heap automata that allows us to derive asymptotically optimal decision procedures for a wide range of robustness properties in a uniform way. We implemented a protoype of our framework and obtained promising results for all of the aforementioned robustness properties. Further, we demonstrate the applicability of heap automata beyond robustness properties. We apply our algorithmic framework to the model checking and the entailment problem for symbolic-heap separation logic.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2016

Voicing Transformations and a Linear Representation of Uniform Triadic Transformations

Motivated by analytical methods in mathematical music theory, we determine the structure of the subgroup J of GL(3,Z12) generated by the three voicing reflections. As applications of our Structure Theorem, we determine the structure of the stabilizer H in Sigma3 semi-direct product J of root position triads, and show that H is a representation of Hook's uniform triadic transformations group U. We also determine the centralizer of J in both GL(3,Z12) and the monoid Aff(3,Z12) of affine transformations, and recover a Lewinian duality for trichords containing a generator of Z12}. We present a variety of musical examples, including the Wagner's hexatonic Grail motive and the diatonic falling fifths as cyclic orbits, an elaboration of our earlier work with Satyendra on Schoenberg, String Quartet in D minor, op. 7, and an affine musical map of Joseph Schillinger. Finally, we observe, perhaps unexpectedly, that the retrograde inversion enchaining operation RICH (for arbitrary 3-tuples) belongs to the representation H. This allows a more economical description of a passage in Webern, Concerto for Nine Instruments, op. 24 in terms of a morphism of group actions.

math.GR↗

arXiv2013

Morphisms of Generalized Interval Systems and PR-Groups

We begin the development of a categorical perspective on the theory of generalized interval systems (GIS's). Morphisms of GIS's allow the analyst to move between multiple interval systems and connect transformational networks. We expand the analytical reach of the Sub Dual Group Theorem of Fiore--Noll (2011) and the generalized contextual group of Fiore--Satyendra (2005) by combining them with a theory of GIS morphisms. Concrete examples include an analysis of Schoenberg, String Quartet in D minor, op. 7, and simply transitive covers of the octatonic set. This work also lays the foundation for a transformational study of Lawvere--Tierney upgrades in the topos of triads of Noll (2005).

math.GR↗

arXiv2013

Incorporating Voice Permutations into the Theory of Neo-Riemannian Groups and Lewinian Duality

A familiar problem in neo-Riemannian theory is that the P, L, and R operations defined as contextual inversions on pitch-class segments do not produce parsimonious voice leading. We incorporate permutations into T/I-PLR-duality to resolve this issue and simultaneously broaden the applicability of this duality. More precisely, we construct the dual group to the permutation group acting on n-tuples with distinct entries, and prove that the dual group to permutations adjoined with a group G of invertible affine maps Z12 -> Z12 is the internal direct product of the dual to permutations and the dual to G. Musical examples include Liszt, R. W. Venezia, S. 201 and Schoenberg, String Quartet Number 1, Opus 7. We also prove that the Fiore--Noll construction of the dual group in the finite case works, and clarify the relationship of permutations with the RICH transformation.

math.GR↗

arXiv2011

Commuting Groups and the Topos of Triads

The goal of this article is to clarify the relationship between the topos of triads and the neo-Riemannian PLR-group. To do this, we first develop some theory of generalized interval systems: 1) we prove the well known fact that every pair of dual groups is isomorphic to the left and right regular representations of some group (Cayley's Theorem), 2) given a simply transitive group action, we show how to construct the dual group, and 3) given two dual groups, we show how to easily construct sub dual groups. Examples of this construction of sub dual groups include Cohn's hexatonic systems, as well as the octatonic systems. We then enumerate all Z_{12}-subsets which are invariant under the triadic monoid and admit a simply transitive PLR-subgroup action on their maximal triadic covers. As a corollary, we realize all four hexatonic systems and all three octatonic systems as Lawvere--Tierney upgrades of consonant triads.

math.GR↗