Interaction and Depth against Nondeterminism in Proof Search

Abstract: Deep inference is a proof theoretic methodology that generalizes the standard notion of inference of the sequent calculus, whereby inference rules become applicable at any depth inside logical expressions. Deep inference provides more freedom in the design of deductive systems for different logics and a rich combinatoric analysis of proofs. In particular, construction of exponentially shorter analytic proofs becomes possible, however with the cost of a greater nondeterminism than in the sequent calculus. In this paper, we show that the nondeterminism in proof search can be reduced without losing the shorter proofs and without sacrificing proof theoretic cleanliness. For this, we exploit an interaction and depth scheme in the logical expressions. We demonstrate our method on deep inference systems for multiplicative linear logic and classical logic, discuss its proof complexity and its relation to focusing, and present implementations.