Deciding and Interpolating Algebraic Data Types by Reduction (Technical Report)

Abstract: Recursive algebraic data types (term algebras, ADTs) are one of the most well-studied theories in logic, and find application in contexts including functional programming, modelling languages, proof assistants, and verification. At this point, several state-of-the-art theorem provers and SMT solvers include tailor-made decision procedures for ADTs, and version 2.6 of the SMT-LIB standard includes support for ADTs. We study an extremely simple approach to decide satisfiability of ADT constraints, the reduction of ADT constraints to equisatisfiable constraints over uninterpreted functions (EUF) and linear integer arithmetic (LIA). We show that the reduction approach gives rise to both decision and Craig interpolation procedures in (extensions of) ADTs.