Metalevel algorithms for variant satisfiability

Variant satisfiability is a theory-generic algorithm to decide quantifier-free satisfiability in an initial algebra TΣ/E when the theory (Σ,E) has the finite variant property and its constructors satisfy a compactness condition. This paper: (i) gives a precise definition of several meta-level sub-algorithms needed for variant satisfiability; (ii) proves them correct; and (iii) presents a reflective implementation of variant satisfiability checking using these sub-algorithms in Maude 2.7.1.