Mace stands for "Models And Counter-Examples", and is a
model
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
finder.
Most
automated theorem prover
Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a maj ...
s try to perform a proof by refutation on the
clause normal form
In Boolean logic, a formula is in conjunctive normal form (CNF) or clausal normal form if it is a conjunction of one or more clauses, where a clause is a disjunction of literals; otherwise put, it is a product of sums or an AND of ORs. As a ca ...
of the proof problem, by showing that the combination of
axiom
An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...
s and negated conjecture can never be simultaneously true, i.e. does not have a model. A model finder such as Mace, on the other hand, tries to find an explicit model of a set of clauses. If it succeeds, this corresponds to a counter-example for the conjecture, i.e. it disproves the (claimed) theorem.
Mace is
GNU GPL
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...
licensed.
See also
*
Otter (theorem prover)
Otter is an automated theorem prover developed by William McCune at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Otter was the first widely distributed, high-performance theorem prover for first-order logic, and it pioneered a number of important i ...
*
Prover9 Prover9 is an automated theorem prover for first-order and equational logic developed by William McCune.
Description
Prover9 is the successor of the Otter theorem prover also developed by William McCune. Prover9 is noted for producing relatively ...
References
External links
System download
Free theorem provers
Free software
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