Lightweight relevance filtering for machine-generated resolution problems

Irrelevant clauses in resolution problems increase the search space, making it hard to find proofs in a reasonable time. Simple relevance filtering methods, based on counting function symbols in clauses, improve the success rate for a variety of automatic theorem provers and with various initial settings. We have designed these techniques as part of a project to link automatic theorem provers to the interactive theorem prover Isabelle. They should be applicable to other situations where the resolution problems are produced mechanically and where completeness is less important than achieving a high success rate with limited processor time.