Symbolic Reasoning

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Overview

Symbolic reasoning represents problems with explicit objects, relations, and rules, then uses those structures to derive conclusions or check whether they are valid. Approaches include theorem provers, SAT and SMT solvers, constraint programming, algebraic rewriting, and neuro-symbolic systems that pair these tools with language models. Researchers evaluate systems on formal logic and deduction, mathematical and geometric problems, planning puzzles, and visual pattern tasks, often testing whether solutions transfer to unfamiliar symbols or deeper compositions. Solvers can provide precise verification, but language-to-symbol translation, brittle generalization, and the trade-off between auditable reasoning and flexible performance remain central challenges.

Latest papers

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73 papers4 papers in the last four weeks, down 50% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Hidden in Plain Sight: Visual-to-Symbolic Analytical Solution Inference from Field Visualizations

    Apr 10, 2026Pengze Li, Jiaquan Zhang, Yunbo Long +12Symbolic ReasoningVisually Grounded Reasoning

    Fudan University, China · Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, China · University of Cambridge, UK +3

  2. Draft-and-Prune: Improving the Reliability of Auto-formalization for Logical Reasoning

    Mar 18, 2026Zhiyu Ni, Zheng Liang, Liangcheng Song +4AutoformalizationLLM Reasoning

    University of California, Berkeley · Microsoft

  3. PYTHEN: A Flexible Framework for Legal Reasoning in Python

    Mar 16, 2026Ha-Thanh Nguyen, Ken SatohLegal ReasoningLogical Reasoning

    Center for Juris-Informatics, ROIS-DS, Tokyo, Japan · Research and Development Center for Large Language Models, NII, Tokyo, Japan

  4. Power Term Polynomial Algebra for Boolean Logic

    Mar 14, 2026Emanuele Sansone, Armando Solar-LezamaSymbolic Reasoning

    CSAIL, MIT, USA · ESAT, KU Leuven, Belgium

  5. Learning to Unscramble: Simplifying Symbolic Expressions via Self-Supervised Oracle Trajectories

    Mar 11, 2026David ShihSymbolic ReasoningSelf-Supervised Learning

    NHETC, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA

  6. Non-Parametric Structural Priors for Geometry Theorem Prediction

    Mar 5, 2026Junbo Zhao, Ting Zhang, Can Li +3Mathematical ReasoningAutomated Theorem Proving

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China · Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Technology and Educational Application, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China · Beijing Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence for Education, Beijing, China +1

  7. ITLC at SemEval-2026 Task 11: Normalization and Deterministic Parsing for Formal Reasoning in LLMs

    Mar 3, 2026Wicaksono Leksono Muhamad, Joanito Agili Lopo, Tack Hwa Wong +2LLM ReasoningSymbolic Reasoning

    SEACrowd · Mantera Studio · Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS +2

  8. Reasoning Core: A Scalable Procedural Data Generation Suite for Symbolic Pre-training and Post-Training

    Mar 2, 2026Valentin Lacombe, Valentin Quesnel, Damien SileoSynthetic Data Generation for Language ModelsSynthetic Data Pretraining

    Univ. Lille, Inria, CNRS, Centrale Lille, UMR 9189 - CRIStAL, F-59000 Lille, France

  9. On the Exact Algorithmic Extraction of Finite Tesselations Through Prime Extraction of Minimal Representative Forms

    Mar 1, 2026Sushish Baral, Paulo Garcia, Warisa SritriratanarakSymbolic Reasoning

    Department of Computer Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand · International School of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

  10. INDUCTION: Finite-Structure Concept Synthesis in First-Order Logic

    Feb 21, 2026Serafim BatzoglouSymbolic ReasoningInductive Inference

    Independent Researcher.

  11. Neuro-Symbolic Synergy for World Modeling

    Feb 11, 2026Hongyu Zhao, Siyu Zhou, Haolin Yang +2LLM World ModelsWorld Model Learning

    Department of Computer Science University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742, USA · Faculty of Engineering and IT Australian AI Institute University of Technology Sydney Sydney, Australia · Department of Statistics University of Chicago Chicago, IL 60637, USA +2

  12. Machine learning modularity

    Jan 5, 2026Yi Fan, Vishnu Jejjala, Yang LeiSymbolic Reasoning

    School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University, 333 Ganjiang Road, Suzhou 215006, P.R. China · Institute for Advanced Study, Soochow University, 333 Ganjiang Road, Suzhou 215006, P.R. China · Mandelstam Institute for Theoretical Physics, School of Physics and NITheCS, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa +1

  13. Training Language Models to Use Prolog as a Tool

    Dec 8, 2025Niklas Mellgren, Peter Schneider-Kamp, Lukas Galke PoechReward HackingLogical Reasoning

    University of Southern Denmark