Model Checking and Evidence Exploration

We present an algebraic framework for evidence exploration: the process of interpreting, manipulating, and navigating the proof structure or evidence produced by a model checker when attempting to verify a system specification for a temporal-logic property. Due to the sheer size of such evidence, single-step traversal is prohibitive and smarter exploration methods are required. Evidence exploration allows users to explore evidence through smaller, manageable views, which are definable in relational graph algebra, a natural extension of relational algebra to graph structures such as model-checking evidence. We illustrate the utility of our approach by applying the Evidence Explorer, our tool implementation of the evidence-exploration framework, to the Java meta-locking algorithm, a highly optimized technique deployed by the Java Virtual Machine to ensure mutually exclusive access to object monitor queues by threads.