Theta as a Horn Solver
THETA is a verification framework that has participated in the CHC-COMP competition since 2023.While its core approach -based on transforming constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) into control-flow automata (CFAs) for analysis -has remained mostly unchanged, THETA's verification techniques, design trade-offs, and limitations have remained mostly unexplored in the context of CHCs.This paper fills that gap: we provide a detailed description of the algorithms employed by Theta, highlighting the unique features that distinguish it from other CHC solvers.We also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the tool in the context of CHC-COMP benchmarks.Notably, in the 2025 edition of the competition, Theta's performance was impacted by a configuration issue, leading to suboptimal results.To provide a clearer picture of Theta's actual capabilities, we re-execute the tool on the competition benchmarks under corrected settings and report on the resulting performance.
Authors
- Levente Bajczi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6551-5860)
- Vince Molnár (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8204-7595)
- Milán Mondok (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5396-2172)
Institutions
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics (HU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
- Published
- 2025-10-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.4204/eptcs.434.5
- Primary Topic
- Formal Methods in Verification
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap
- National Research, Development and Innovation Office