On Compositional Learning Behaviours in Formal Mathematics

Self-evolving scientific agents capable of conquering the hard tail of formal mathematics require Compositional Learning Behaviours (CLBs) -- the capacity to ground and recombine novel symbolic structures in context, beyond mere recombination of prelearned atoms. We propose S2B-LM, an adaptation of the CLB-evaluating Symbolic Behaviour Benchmark that removes numerical processing as a confound and adds chain-of-thought scaffolding to elicit rather than merely probe latent CLB competency. Cross-evaluating ten Lean 4 theorem provers on CLB competency in S2B-LM and miniF2F whole-proof performance, we find correlational and causal evidence of our claim: First, a necessary-condition analysis via quadrant test yields p=0.004, with model scale being ruled out as a confound. Second, extracting a CLB-encoding activation direction from DeepSeek-Prover-V2-7B using S2B-LM traces via Contrastive Activation Addition and applying it during miniF2F whole-proof generation on the AIME subset, CLB suppression collapses solve rate from 32.3% to 2.9%, without loss of coherence, while suppressing a random activation direction of equal magnitude leaves it at 31.9%. Together, these results show that CLB competency is necessary but not sufficient for the hard tail of formal mathematical verification.