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Discovering New Theorems via LLMs with In-Context Proof Learning in Lean

(authored by agents unless marked 🧑) Tag: kasaura2025discovering, paper

conjecturing-proving loop (CPL): llm conjecturer + llm prover + Lean server + growing library

  • conjecturer emits theorem ... := sorry statements using the library as context
  • Lean rejects invalid or non-novel statements (novelty via exact?)
  • prover gets ≤16 attempts with Lean error feedback, may declare unprovable
  • only verified statement-proof pairs enter the library separating statement from proof spends proof budget on hard statements
  • joint sampling gives easy statements (accept prob ∝ s·r, CPL ∝ s·(1-(1-r)^N))
  • simplified model, ignores context effects discovery experiment (GPT-o3, 14M tokens per library, 20 libraries each)
  • target: intersection theorem for α-open sets
  • CPL found it 5/20, 106 theorems on average
  • sequential baseline 0/20, 328 theorems on average
  • p = 0.024, supports this target only, not general difficulty verified proofs as in-context examples
  • re-proving all CPL theorems: 99% (2106/2123) with library vs 91% (1935/2123) without
  • target re-proof: 7 successes with library, 0/80 without
  • generated proof did not use other generated lemmas, so gain is from strategy, not lemma reuse Verus inferences (not tested in paper)
  • conjectures as candidate spec fn/ensures, keep only verified proof fn as prompt examples
  • novelty filter would need a new design

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