Proofs and Refutations, and Z3

Abstract Z3 [3] is a state-of-the-art Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solver freely available from Microsoft Research. It solves the decision problem for quantifier-free formulas with respect to combinations of theories, such as arithmetic, bit-vectors, arrays, and uninterpreted functions. Z3 is used in various software analysis and test-case generation projects at Microsoft Research and elsewhere. The requirements from the user-base range from establishing validity, dually unsatisfiability, of firstorder formulas; to identify invalid, dually satisfiable, formulas. In both cases, there is often a need for more than just a yes/no answer from the prover. A model can exhibit why an invalid formula is not provable, and a proof-object can certify the validity of a formula. This paper describes the proof-producing internals of Z3. We also briefly introduce the model-producing facilities. We emphasize two features that can be of general interest: (1) we introduce a notion of implicit quotation to avoid introducing auxiliary variables, it simplifies the creation of proof objects considerably; (2) we produce natural deduction style proofs to facilitate modular proof re-construction.

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