Deciding Confluence and Normal Form Properties of Ground Term Rewrite Systems Efficiently

It is known that the first-order theory of rewriting is decidable for ground term rewrite systems, but the general technique uses tree automata and often takes exponential time. For many properties, including confluence (CR), uniqueness of normal forms with respect to reductions (UNR) and with respect to conversions (UNC), polynomial time decision procedures are known for ground term rewrite systems. However, this is not the case for the normal form property (NFP). In this work, we present a cubic time algorithm for NFP, an almost cubic time algorithm for UNR, and an almost linear time algorithm for UNC, improving previous bounds. We also present a cubic time algorithm for CR

Complexity Results for Confluence Problems

Abstract. We study the complexity of the confluence problem for re-stricted kinds of semi–Thue systems, vector replacement systems and general trace rewriting systems. We prove that confluence for length– reducing semi–Thue systems is P–complete and that this complexity reduces to NC2 in the monadic case. For length–reducing vector re-placement systems we prove that the confluence problem is PSPACE– complete and that the complexity reduces to NP and P for monadic sys-tems and special systems, respectively. Finally we prove that for special trace rewriting systems, confluence can be decided in polynomial time and that the extended word problem for special trace rewriting systems is undecidable.

Algorithms and Reductions for Rewriting Problems

In this paper we initiate a study of polynomial-time reductions for some basic decision problems of rewrite systems. We then give a polynomial-time algorithm for the unique-normal-form property of ground systems for the first time. Next we prove undecidability of several problems for a fixed string rewriting system using our reductions. Finally, we prove the decidability of confluence for commutative semi-thue systems. The Confluence and Unique-normal-form property are shown Expspace-hard for commutative semi-thue systems. We also show that there is a family of string rewrite systems for which the word problem is trivially decidable but confluence is undecidable, and we show a linear equational theory with decidable word problem but undecidable linear equational matching problem

Algorithms and Reductions for Rewriting Problems

In this paper we initiate a systematic study of polynomial-time reductions for some basic decision problems of rewrite systems. We then give a polynomial-time algorithm for Unique-normal-form property of ground systems for the first time. Next we prove undecidability of these problems for string rewriting using our reductions. Finally, we prove partial decidability results for Confluence of commutative semi-thue systems. The Confluence and Unique-normal-form property are also shown Expspace-hard for commutative semi-thue systems