Program Certification by Higher-Order Model Checking

Naoki Kobayashi

Abstract: Model checking of higher-order recursion schemes or (collapsible) higher-order pushdown automata (higher-order model checking, for short) is a generalization of finite state and pushdown model checking, which has been extensively studied in the last decade [1-11, 15-17]. Higher-order recursion schemes are essentially terms of the simply-typed (λ)-calculus with recursion and tree constructors; therefore, they serve as good models for higher-order functional programs. Indeed, various verification problems for higher-order functional programs can be easily reduced to higher-order model checking, and automated verification tools have been developed based on the reduction [9, 12-14, 18].