Modeling and Verifying Graph Transformations in Proof Assistants

This paper takes first steps towards a formalization of graph transformations in a general setting of interactive theorem provers, which will form the basis for proofs of correctness of graph transformation systems. Whereas graph rewriting is usually performed by mapping a pattern graph into a source graph by means of a graph morphism and then carrying out operations on the image node and edge set, this article generalises the notion of pattern graph to path expressions, which are formulae in a fragment of first-order logic. We examine the correspondence with traditional graph rewriting and show that this interpretation is beneficial when formally reasoning about model transformations with the aid of proof assistants.