ACV 2027

ACV 2027

Second Workshop on Abstract and Concrete Techniques in Verification

July 19, 2027
Affiliated with CAV 2027
Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Workshop Scope

Formal verification research stands upon two lines of work. One is on abstract mathematical semantics of systems, defining systems’ behaviors based on which formal verification is conducted. The other one is on concrete algorithms and methods that enable efficient and scalable verification.

The two lines have some marked differences in their ecosystems. For example, experimental evaluation is virtually a must for the latter, while it is not for the former. Their different orientations—abstract and concrete—have made them hard to communicate with each other.

However, a recent scientific trend points to the need, feasibility, and prolificacy of the unification of abstract and concrete. On the abstract side, more works have implementations and experiments, demonstrating right away the practical value of their abstract theory. Conversely, on the concrete side, abstraction, generalization, and unification of various concrete verification methods have been actively sought.

This way, a new form of unification of abstract and concrete is emerging, centered around the mathematical languages of lattices and categories. This also follows a well-beaten track of the successful collaboration between abstract and concrete in programming language research (such as monads in functional programming). Such unification is much desired, too, now that the hard-to-(logically-)model nature of statistical AI is posing methodological challenges to formal verification.

The goal of this workshop is to promote the unification of abstract and concrete and thus to incubate breakthroughs in formal verification. Specifically,

  • we gather a wide audience from the formal verification community,
  • we share results, observations, and experience from both sides of abstract and concrete,
  • we seek a common language, and
  • we seek matchings between abstract theories and concrete techniques,

thereby picturing a new form of formal verification research in the AI era.

Call for Presentations

We solicit contributed presentations. Topics of interest include the following, although the list is by no means exclusive.

  • Abstract semantical techniques in formal verification, towards concrete methods
    • Lattice-theoretic modeling
    • Categorical modeling
    • Algebras and coalgebras
    • String diagrams
    • Implementation techniques for abstract theories
  • Concrete verification algorithms and methods, towards abstraction
    • Model checking
    • Theorem proving, automated and interactive
    • Program verification
    • Type systems
    • Probabilistic verification
    • Cyber-physical systems
    • Quantum systems
  • Accessible introduction to basics, abstract or concrete
    • Abstract semantical methods
    • Concrete verification methods
  • Examples of successful matchings between abstract and concrete, or efforts towards them

Submission

TBA

Attending

The workshop takes place on July 19, 2027, at the venue of CAV 2027

Organizers

Ichiro Hasuo (National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan)
Bart Jacobs (Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands)

Sam Staton (University of Oxford, UK)

Acknowledgments

Many thanks are due to the CAV 2027 organization team. The workshop is partially supported by JST ASPIRE Grant No. JPMJAP2301.