Abstract

We address the general problem of determining the validity of boolean combinations of equalities and inequalities between real-valued expressions. In particular, we consider methods of establishing such assertions using only restricted forms of distributivity. At the same time, we explore ways in which “local'’ decision or heuristic procedures for fragments of the theory of the reals can be amalgamated into global ones. Let $Tadd[QQ]$ be the first-order theory of the real numbers in the language with symbols $0, 1, +, -.