Automating mathematical reasoning has long been a goal in artificial intelligence, with formal frameworks like Lean 4, Isabelle, and Coq playing a significant role. These frameworks enable users to write machine-verifiable proofs of mathematical theorems, providing a structured environment for proving complex problems. Developing neural theorem-provers, which aim to automate this process, requires rigorous benchmarks to evaluate their effectiveness and drive further research.
A critical issue in AI-driven theorem proving is the lack of comprehensive benchmarks that challenge these systems with advanced mathematical problems. Existing benchmarks, such as MINI F2F and FIMO, primarily focus on high-school-level mathematics and need to sufficiently test the capabilities of neural theorem provers on more complex, undergraduate-level problems. This gap necessitates the creation of a more robust benchmark encompassing a wider range of mathematical challenges.
Researchers from UT Austin have introduced PUTNAMBENCH, a new benchmark designed to evaluate neural theorem-provers using problems from the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. This competition is renowned in North America for its challenging college-level mathematics problems, making it an ideal source for a rigorous benchmark. PUTNAMBENCH includes 1697 formalizations of 640 issues, each available in Lean 4 and Isabelle and a significant subset in Coq. This multilingual approach ensures comprehensive evaluation across different theorem-proving environments.
PUTNAMBENCH’s methodology involves manually constructing formalizations of Putnam competition problems, ensuring each problem is carefully debugged and available in multiple formal proof languages. These formalizations cover various topics taught in undergraduate mathematics courses, such as algebra, analysis, number theory, and combinatorics. The problems are designed to test significant problem-solving abilities and proficiency in various mathematical concepts, making PUTNAMBENCH a challenging benchmark for neural theorem provers.
The evaluation of PUTNAMBENCH utilized several neural and symbolic theorem-provers, including Draft-Sketch-Prove, COPRA, GPT-4, Sledgehammer, and Coqhammer. These methods were tested on the 1697 formalizations, with each technique attempting to solve the problems using their unique approaches. The results showed that current methods could solve only a handful of the PUTNAMBENCH problems. For instance, GPT-4 solved only one out of 640 problems in Lean 4 and Coq, while Sledgehammer solved three out of 640 issues in Isabelle.
One of the key challenges highlighted by the PUTNAMBENCH evaluations is the difficulty synthesizing new lemmas and orchestrating these lemmas into intricate proofs. While current theorem provers can effectively stitch together standard proof steps well-represented in their training corpus, they often need help creating new, innovative proof strategies. This limitation underscores the need for more advanced neural models that can leverage deep mathematical knowledge and reasoning.
PUTNAMBENCH’s multilingual nature sets it apart from previous benchmarks. By including problems in Lean 4, Isabelle, and Coq, PUTNAMBENCH allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of theorem-proving methods. This approach ensures that the benchmark can test theorem-provers’ robustness across different formal proof environments, providing a complete picture of their capabilities and limitations.
In conclusion, PUTNAMBENCH, by providing a diverse set of 1697 formalizations of Putnam competition problems across multiple formal proof languages, addresses the limitations of existing benchmarks. It sets a new standard for rigor and comprehensiveness. The results from current evaluations indicate that while progress has been made, there is still a long way to go in developing neural theorem provers capable of solving complex mathematical problems. PUTNAMBENCH will undoubtedly be crucial in driving future research and innovation.
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