What is the meaning of the name of the Z3 SMT solver? - z3

The Z3 SMT solver from Microsoft Research is widely viewed as a leader in its field.
Is there any meaning behind the name "Z3" or is it purely a random project name? I have looked through several papers and slides that introduce the project, but none of them seem to explain the name.

"Z3" in the name Z3 SMT solver (SMT = Satisfiability modulo theories) is based on a previous Microsoft solver called Zapatho. Basically, higher versions had more functions but a shorter name. It went from
Zapatho
Zap2
Z3
Explained by Nikolaj Bjørner in Z3 and SMT in Industrial R&D:
Microsoft Research was also an incubator to the SLAM symbolic model checker, which had instigated the previous generations of SMT solvers at Microsoft: Zapatho solved integer difference logic and uninterpreted functions, Zap2 (dropping “atho”) extended the scope to full linear arithmetic, uninterpreted functions, arrays and quantifiers,and Leonardo de Moura and I created a v. 3 from scratch, Z3, dropping “ap”.
(Originally: N Bjørner, "Z3 and SMT in Industrial R&D" in: K Havelund, J Peleska, B Roscoe, E de Vink: "Formal Methods: 22nd International Symposium, FM 2018, Held as Part of the Federated Logic Conference, FloC 2018, Oxford, UK, July 15-17, 2018, Proceedings", Springer, p. 676.)

Related

Some questions about incremental SAT in Z3: can it be deactivated? Which techniques are used inside?

I am still in the process of learning the guts of Z3 (Python).
It was brought to my attention that Z3 performs incremental SAT solving by default (see SAT queries are slowing down in Z3-Python: what about incremental SAT?): specifically, every time you use the s.add command (where s is a solver), it means that it adds that clause to s, but it does not forget everything you have learned before.
First question: can non-incremental SAT solving be done in Z3? That is, somehow 'deactivate' the incremental solving. What would this mean? That we are creating a new solver for each enlarged formula?
For instance, this approach would be Z3-default-incremental:
...
phi = a_formula
s = Solver()
s.add(phi)
while s.check() == sat:
s.check()
m = s.model()
phi = add_modelNegation(m)
s.add(phi) #in order not to explore the same model again
...
That is, once we get a model, we attach the negated model to the same solver.
While this one is 'forcing' Z3 to be non-incremental:
...
phi_st = a_formula
s = Solver()
s.add(phi_st)
negatedModelsStack = []
while s.check() == sat:
m = s.model()
phi_n = add_modelNegation(m)
negatedModelsStack.append(phi_n)
original_plus_negated = And(phi_st, And(negatedModelsStack))
s = Solver()
s.add(original_plus_negated) #in order not to explore the same model again
...
That is, once we get a model, we attach the obtained models to a new solver.
Am I right?
On the other hand, in the attached link, the following is stated:
Compare this to, for instance, CVC4; which is by default not incremental. If you want to use CVC4 in incremental mode, you have to pass a specific command line argument
Does this mean in CVC4 you must create a new solver every time? Like in the second code?
Second question: how can I know exactly what techniques I am using to do incremental solving in Z3? I have been reading about incremental SAT theory and I see that one of those techniques is 'CDCL' (http://www.cril.univ-artois.fr/~audemard/slidesMontpellier2014.pdf), is this used in Z3's incremental search?
References: In order not to inundate Stack with similar questions, which readings do you recommend for incremental SAT in general and Z3's incremental SAT in particular? Also, is the incremental SAT of Z3 similar to the ones of other solvers such as MiniSAT or PySAT?
I'm not sure why you're trying to get z3 to act in a non-incremental way. But, if that's your goal, simply do not call check more than once: That's equivalent to being non-incremental. (Think of being incremental an "additional feature." You don't have to use it. The only difference between z3 and cvc4 is that the latter requires you to tell it ahead of time that you intend to use it in an incremental fashion, while the former is incremental by default.) As an end user you don't really need to know or care about the difference.
Side note If you start cvc4 without telling it to be incremental and call check twice, it'll complain. z3 won't. But otherwise the experience should be the same.
I don't think knowing how solvers implement incrementally is really helpful from a programming perspective. (It's of course paramount if you are implementing your own SMT solver.) There are many papers online for many aspects of SMT, though if you want to study the topic from scratch I recommend Daniel and Ofer's book on decision procedures: http://www.decision-procedures.org

Z3Py how to use Pi and e

Is it possible to use pi, e and other non-algebraic real numbers in Z3Py?
I wouldn't want to run any C program, but directly from the Z3 Python API
Non-algebraic numbers are usually not supported by SMT solvers. Having said that, you can get pi in z3 indirectly via trigonometric functions, (sin, cos etc.); but the support is incomplete. (Meaning that the solver is most likely to return unknown for most inputs.)
See this answer for a related question: Support of trigonometric functions ( e.g.: cos, tan) in Z3

Optimize Solver Tactics for Circuit SAT

I am using the Z3 solver with Python API to tackle a Circuit SAT problem.
It consists of many Xor expressions with up to 21 inputs and three-input And expressions. Z3 is able to solve my smaller examples but does not cope with the bigger ones.
Rather than creating the Solver object with
s = Solver()
I tried to optimize the solver tactics like in
t = Then('simplify', 'symmetry-reduce', 'aig', 'tseitin-cnf', 'sat' )
s = t.solver()
I got the tactics list via describe_tactics()
Unfortunately, my attempts have not been fruitful. The default sequence of tactics seems to do a pretty good job. The tactics tutorial previously available in rise4fun is no longer accessible.
Another attempt - without visible effect - was to set the phase parameter, as I am expecting the majority of my variables to have false values. (cf related post)
set_option("sat.phase", "always-false")
What sequence of tactics is recommended for Circuit SAT problems?

Prove() method of Z3?

Z3 has a prove() method, that can prove the equivalence of two formulas.
However, I cannot find technical documentation of this prove() method. What is the definition of "equivalence" that prove() is using behind the scene ? Is that the "partial equivalence" (proposed in the "Regression Verification" paper), or something more powerful ?
A reminder, the "partial equivalence" guarantees that two formulas are equivalent if given the same input, they produce the same output.
In "Regression Verification", we are checking whether a newer version of a program produces the same output as the earlier one. That is, it is an approach for checking program equivalence.
In this approach, theorem provers (SMT solvers) such as Z3 are used. That being said, we should not confuse program equivalence with formula equivalence in first-order logic. Z3 processes first-order logic formulas. First-order logic has well defined semantics. A key concept is satisfiability. For example, the formula p or q is satisfiable, because we can make it true by assigning p or q to true. On the other hand, p and (not p) is unsatisfiable. We can find additional information in this section of the Z3 tutorial.
The Z3 API provides procedures for checking the satisfiability of first-order formulas. The Z3 Python interface has a prove procedure. It shows that a formula is valid by showing that its negation is unsatisfiable. This is a simple function built on top of the Z3 API. Here is a link to its documentation.The documentation was automatically generated from the PyDoc annotations in the code.
Note that, prove(F) is checking whether a formula F is valid or not. Thus, we can use prove(F == G) to try to prove that two first-order formulas F and G are equivalent. That is, we are essentially showing that F iff G is a valid formula.

Quantifier Elimination - More questions

Many thanks Josh and Leonardo for answering the previous question.
I have few more questions.
<1> Consider another example.
(exists k) i * k > = 4 and k > 1.
This has a simple solution i > 0. (both for Int and Real case)
However, when I tried following,
(declare-const i Int)
(assert (exists ((k Int)) (and (>= (* i k) 4) (> k 1))))
(apply (using-params qe :qe-nonlinear true))
Z3 Could not eliminate quantifier here.
However, it could eliminate for a Real case. (when i and k are both reals)
Is Quantifier Elimination more difficult for integers?
<2> I am using Z3 C API in my system. I am adding some non-linear constraints on Integers with quantifiers in my system.
Z3 currently checks for satisfiability and gives me a correct model when the system is satisfiable.
I know that after quantifier elimination, these constraints get reduced to linear constraints.
I thought that z3 does quantifier elimination automatically before checking satisfiability. But since, it couldn't do that in case 1 above, I now think, that it usually finds a model without Quantifier Elimination. Am I correct?
Currently z3 can solve the constraints in my system. But it may fail on complex systems.
In such case, is it a good idea to do quantifier elimination by some other method without z3 and add constraints to z3 later?
<3> I can think of adding Real non-linear constraints instead of Integer non-linear constraints in my system. In that case, how can I enforce z3 to do Quantifier Elimination using C-API ?
<4> Finally, is this a good idea to enforce z3 to do Quantifier Elimination? Or it usually finds a model more intelligently without doing Quantifier Elimination?
Thanks.
<1> The theory of nonlinear integer arithmetic does not admit quantifier elimination (qe).
Moreover, the decision problem for nonlinear integer arithmetic is undecidable.
Recall that, Z3 has limited support for quantifier elimination of nonlinear real arithmetic formulas. The current procedure is based on virtual term substitution. Future versions, may have full support for nonlinear real arithmetic.
<2> Quantifier elimination is not enabled by default. The user must request it.
Z3 may find models for satisfiable formulas even when quantifier elimination is not enabled.
It uses a technique called model-based quantifier instantiation (MBQI). The Z3 online tutorial has several examples describing capabilities and limitations of this technique.
<3> You have to enable it when you create the Z3_context object.
Any option that is set in the command line, can be provided during Z3_context object creation. Here is an example, that enables model construction and quantifier elimination:
Z3_config cfg = Z3_mk_config();
Z3_context ctx;
Z3_set_param_value(cfg, "MODEL", "true");
Z3_set_param_value(cfg, "ELIM_QUANTIFIERS", "true");
Z3_set_param_value(cfg, "ELIM_NLARITH_QUANTIFIERS", "true");
ctx = mk_context_custom(cfg, throw_z3_error);
Z3_del_config(cfg);
After that, ctx is pointing to a Z3 context object that supports model construction and quantifier elimination.
<4> The MBQI module is not complete even for the linear arithmetic fragment.
The Z3 online tutorial describes the fragments it is complete. MBQI module is a good option for problems that contain uninterpreted functions. If your problems only use arithmetic, then quantifier elimination is usually better and more efficient. That being said, several problems can be quickly solved using MBQI.

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