Isabelle (theorem prover)

The Isabelle theorem prover is an interactive theorem prover, a Higher Order Logic (HOL) theorem prover. It is an LCF-style theorem prover (written in Standard ML), so it is based on a small logical core to ease logical correctness. Isabelle is generic: it provides a meta-logic (a weak type theory), which is used to encode object logics like first-order logic (FOL), higher-order logic (HOL) or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZFC). Isabelle's main proof method is a higher-order version of resolution, based on higher-order unification. Though interactive, Isabelle also features efficient automatic reasoning tools, such as a term rewriting engine and a tableaux prover, as well as various decision procedures. Isabelle has been used to formalize numerous theorems from mathematics and computer science, like Gödel's completeness theorem, Gödel's theorem about the consistency of the axiom of choice, the prime number theorem, correctness of security protocols, and properties of programming language semantics. The Isabelle theorem prover is free software, released under the revised BSD license.

Isabelle was named by Lawrence Paulson after Gérard Huet's daughter.