A tableau calculus for minimal modal model generation

Model generation and minimal model generation is useful for fault analysis, verification of systems and validation of data models. Whereas for classical propositional and first-order logic several model minimization approaches have been developed and studied, for non-classical logic the topic has been much less studied. In this paper we introduce a minimal model generation calculus for multi-modal logic K(m) and extensions of K(m) with the axioms T and B. The calculus provides a method to generate all and only minimal modal Herbrand models, and each model is generated exactly once. A novelty of the calculus is a non-standard complement splitting rule designed for minimal model generation. Experiments show the rule has the added benefit of reducing the search space. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.