## Learning proof heuristics by adapting parameters

• We present a method for learning heuristics employed by an automated proverto control its inference machine. The hub of the method is the adaptation of theparameters of a heuristic. Adaptation is accomplished by a genetic algorithm.The necessary guidance during the learning process is provided by a proof prob-lem and a proof of it found in the past. The objective of learning consists infinding a parameter configuration that avoids redundant effort w.r.t. this prob-lem and the particular proof of it. A heuristic learned (adapted) this way canthen be applied profitably when searching for a proof of a similar problem. So,our method can be used to train a proof heuristic for a class of similar problems.A number of experiments (with an automated prover for purely equationallogic) show that adapted heuristics are not only able to speed up enormously thesearch for the proof learned during adaptation. They also reduce redundancies inthe search for proofs of similar theorems. This not only results in finding proofsfaster, but also enables the prover to prove theorems it could not handle before.

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