Analysis of Logic Programs Using Regular Tree Languages: Extended Abstract

The eld of nite tree automata provides fundamental notations and tools for reasoning about set of terms called regular or recognizable tree languages. We consider two kinds of analysis using regular tree languages, applied to logic programs. The rst approach is to try to discover automatically a tree automaton from a logic program, approximating its minimal Herbrand model. In this case the input for the analysis is a program, and the output is a tree automaton. The second approach is to expose or check properties of the program that can be
expressed by a given tree automaton. The input to the analysis is a program
and a tree automaton, and the output is an abstract model of the program. These two contrasting abstract interpretations can be used in a wide range of analysis and verication problems.