Improving Pattern-Based LTL Formulas for Automata Model Checking

The Property Specification (Prospec) tool uses patterns and scopes defined by Dwyer et. al., to generate formal specifications in linear temporal logic (LTL) and other languages. The work presented in this paper provides improved LTL specifications for patterns and scopes over those originally provided by Prospec. This improvement comes in the efficiency of the LTL formulas as measured in terms of the number of states in the Buchi automaton generated for the formula. Minimizing the size of the Buchi automata for an LTL specification provides a significant support to the area of model checking.