# From LLM-Generated Conjectures to Lean Formalizations: Automated Polynomial Inequality Proving via Sum-of-Squares Certificates

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15445 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15445/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Mathematical reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 19 of its 51 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 May 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Mathematical reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/mathematical-reasoning/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03300/) (2024)
- [OlympiadBench: A Challenging Benchmark for Promoting AGI with Olympiad-Level Bilingual Multimodal Scientific Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14008/) (2024)
- [DeepSeek-V3.2: Pushing the Frontier of Open Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02556/) (2025)
- [MiniF2F: a cross-system benchmark for formal Olympiad-level mathematics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.00110/) (2021)
- [Generative Language Modeling for Automated Theorem Proving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.03393/) (2020)
- [DeepSeek-Prover-V2: Advancing Formal Mathematical Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning for Subgoal Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21801/) (2025)
- [HyperTree Proof Search for Neural Theorem Proving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11491/) (2022)
- [Kimina-Prover Preview: Towards Large Formal Reasoning Models with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11354/) (2025)
- [PutnamBench: Evaluating Neural Theorem-Provers on the Putnam Mathematical Competition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11214/) (2024)
- [Goedel-Prover-V2: Scaling Formal Theorem Proving with Scaffolded Data Synthesis and Self-Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03613/) (2025)
- [Goedel-Prover: A Frontier Model for Open-Source Automated Theorem Proving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07640/) (2025)
- [Seed-Prover: Deep and Broad Reasoning for Automated Theorem Proving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23726/) (2025)
- [Gold-medalist Performance in Solving Olympiad Geometry with AlphaGeometry2](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.03544/) (2025)
- [BFS-Prover: Scalable Best-First Tree Search for LLM-based Automatic Theorem Proving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.03438/) (2025)
- [Solving and Verifying the boolean Pythagorean Triples problem via Cube-and-Conquer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.00723/) (2016)
- [Proving Olympiad Algebraic Inequalities without Human Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14219/) (2024)
- [DSOS and SDSOS Optimization: More Tractable Alternatives to Sum of Squares and Semidefinite Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02586/) (2017)
- [Proving Olympiad Inequalities by Synergizing LLMs and Symbolic Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13834/) (2025)
- [Sum of Squares Decompositions of Polynomials over their Gradient Ideals with Rational Coefficients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.11825/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Learning to Coordinate Symbolic Tools: LLM Agents for Verified Sum-of-Squares Certificates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.00326/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Automated proving of polynomial inequalities is a fundamental challenge in automated mathematical reasoning, where rich algebraic structure and a rapidly growing certificate search space hinder scalability. Purely symbolic approaches provide strong guarantees but often scale poorly as the number of variables or the degree increases, due to expensive algebraic manipulations and rapidly growing intermediate expressions. In parallel, LLM-guided methods have made notable progress, particularly on competition-style inequalities with a small number of variables. To address the remaining scalability challenges, we propose NSPI, a neuro-symbolic framework that combines the complementary strengths of LLMs and symbolic computation for polynomial-inequality proving. Concretely, an LLM proposes a conjecture in the form of an approximate polynomial Sum-Of-Squares (SOS) decomposition; we refine it via symbolic computation to obtain an exact polynomial SOS representation, which directly proves the target inequality, and we further certify the proof in Lean, yielding an end-to-end pipeline from heuristic discovery to machine-checked proof. Experiments on challenging benchmarks involving polynomials with up to 10 variables demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed method.