A structure which generalizes formulas by including substitution terms is used to represent proofs in classical logic. These structures, called expansion trees, can be most easily understood as describing a tautologous substitution instance of a theorem. They also provide a computationally useful representation of classical proofs as first-class values. As values they are compact and can easily be manipulated and transformed. For example, we present an explicit transformations between expansion tree proofs and cut-free sequential proofs. A theorem prover which represents (...) proofs using expansion trees can use this transformation to present its proofs in more human-readable form. Also a very simple computation on expansion trees can transform them into Craig-style linear reasoning and into interpolants when they exist. We have chosen a sublogic of the Simple Theory of Types for our classical logic because it elegantly represents substitutions at all finite types through the use of the typed -calculus. Since all the proof-theoretic results we shall study depend heavily on properties of substitutions, using this logic has allowed us to strengthen and extend prior results: we are able to prove a strengthen form of the firstorder interpolation theorem as well as provide a correct description of Skolem functions and the Herbrand Universe. The latter are not straightforward generalization of their first-order definitions. (shrink)

A family of prepositional logics is considered to be intermediate between the intuitionistic and classical ones. The generalized interpolation property is defined and proved is the following.Theorem on interpolation. For every intermediate logic L the following statements are equivalent:(i) Craig's interpolation theorem holds in L, (ii) L possesses the generalized interpolation property, (iii) Robinson's consistency statement is true in L.

Three variants of Beth's definability theorem are considered. Let L be any normal extension of the provability logic G. It is proved that the first variant B1 holds in L iff L possesses Craig's interpolation property. If L is consistent, then the statement B2 holds in L iff L = G + {0}. Finally, the variant B3 holds in any normal extension of G.