Proving Looping and Non-Looping Non-Termination by Finite Automata

A new technique is presented to prove non-termination of term rewriting. The basic idea is to find a non-empty regular language of terms that is closed under rewriting and does not contain normal forms. It is automated by representing the language by a tree automaton with a fixed number of states, and expressing the mentioned requirements in a SAT formula. Satisfiability of this formula implies non-termination. Our approach succeeds for many examples where all earlier techniques fail, for instance for the S-rule from combinatory logic

Extending Context-Sensitivity in Term Rewriting

We propose a generalized version of context-sensitivity in term rewriting based on the notion of "forbidden patterns". The basic idea is that a rewrite step should be forbidden if the redex to be contracted has a certain shape and appears in a certain context. This shape and context is expressed through forbidden patterns. In particular we analyze the relationships among this novel approach and the commonly used notion of context-sensitivity in term rewriting, as well as the feasibility of rewriting with forbidden patterns from a computational point of view. The latter feasibility is characterized by demanding that restricting a rewrite relation yields an improved termination behaviour while still being powerful enough to compute meaningful results. Sufficient criteria for both kinds of properties in certain classes of rewrite systems with forbidden patterns are presented

Termination orders for 3-dimensional rewriting

This paper studies 3-polygraphs as a framework for rewriting on two-dimensional words. A translation of term rewriting systems into 3-polygraphs with explicit resource management is given, and the respective computational properties of each system are studied. Finally, a convergent 3-polygraph for the (commutative) theory of Z/2Z-vector spaces is given. In order to prove these results, it is explained how to craft a class of termination orders for 3-polygraphs.Comment: 30 pages, 35 figure

Termination of Rewriting with and Automated Synthesis of Forbidden Patterns

We introduce a modified version of the well-known dependency pair framework that is suitable for the termination analysis of rewriting under forbidden pattern restrictions. By attaching contexts to dependency pairs that represent the calling contexts of the corresponding recursive function calls, it is possible to incorporate the forbidden pattern restrictions in the (adapted) notion of dependency pair chains, thus yielding a sound and complete approach to termination analysis. Building upon this contextual dependency pair framework we introduce a dependency pair processor that simplifies problems by analyzing the contextual information of the dependency pairs. Moreover, we show how this processor can be used to synthesize forbidden patterns suitable for a given term rewriting system on-the-fly during the termination analysis.Comment: In Proceedings IWS 2010, arXiv:1012.533

Infinitary Combinatory Reduction Systems: Confluence

We study confluence in the setting of higher-order infinitary rewriting, in particular for infinitary Combinatory Reduction Systems (iCRSs). We prove that fully-extended, orthogonal iCRSs are confluent modulo identification of hypercollapsing subterms. As a corollary, we obtain that fully-extended, orthogonal iCRSs have the normal form property and the unique normal form property (with respect to reduction). We also show that, unlike the case in first-order infinitary rewriting, almost non-collapsing iCRSs are not necessarily confluent

On the confluence of lambda-calculus with conditional rewriting

The confluence of untyped \lambda-calculus with unconditional rewriting is now well un- derstood. In this paper, we investigate the confluence of \lambda-calculus with conditional rewriting and provide general results in two directions. First, when conditional rules are algebraic. This extends results of M\"uller and Dougherty for unconditional rewriting. Two cases are considered, whether \beta-reduction is allowed or not in the evaluation of conditions. Moreover, Dougherty's result is improved from the assumption of strongly normalizing \beta-reduction to weakly normalizing \beta-reduction. We also provide examples showing that outside these conditions, modularity of confluence is difficult to achieve. Second, we go beyond the algebraic framework and get new confluence results using a restricted notion of orthogonality that takes advantage of the conditional part of rewrite rules

Termination of Rewriting with Right-Flat Rules Modulo Permutative Theories

We present decidability results for termination of classes of term rewriting systems modulo permutative theories. Termination and innermost termination modulo permutative theories are shown to be decidable for term rewrite systems (TRS) whose right-hand side terms are restricted to be shallow (variables occur at depth at most one) and linear (each variable occurs at most once). Innermost termination modulo permutative theories is also shown to be decidable for shallow TRS. We first show that a shallow TRS can be transformed into a flat (only variables and constants occur at depth one) TRS while preserving termination and innermost termination. The decidability results are then proved by showing that (a) for right-flat right-linear (flat) TRS, non-termination (respectively, innermost non-termination) implies non-termination starting from flat terms, and (b) for right-flat TRS, the existence of non-terminating derivations starting from a given term is decidable. On the negative side, we show PSPACE-hardness of termination and innermost termination for shallow right-linear TRS, and undecidability of termination for flat TRS.Comment: 20 page

Towards 3-Dimensional Rewriting Theory

String rewriting systems have proved very useful to study monoids. In good cases, they give finite presentations of monoids, allowing computations on those and their manipulation by a computer. Even better, when the presentation is confluent and terminating, they provide one with a notion of canonical representative of the elements of the presented monoid. Polygraphs are a higher-dimensional generalization of this notion of presentation, from the setting of monoids to the much more general setting of n-categories. One of the main purposes of this article is to give a progressive introduction to the notion of higher-dimensional rewriting system provided by polygraphs, and describe its links with classical rewriting theory, string and term rewriting systems in particular. After introducing the general setting, we will be interested in proving local confluence for polygraphs presenting 2-categories and introduce a framework in which a finite 3-dimensional rewriting system admits a finite number of critical pairs

Complexity Hierarchies and Higher-order Cons-free Term Rewriting

Constructor rewriting systems are said to be cons-free if, roughly, constructor terms in the right-hand sides of rules are subterms of the left-hand sides; the computational intuition is that rules cannot build new data structures. In programming language research, cons-free languages have been used to characterize hierarchies of computational complexity classes; in term rewriting, cons-free first-order TRSs have been used to characterize the class PTIME. We investigate cons-free higher-order term rewriting systems, the complexity classes they characterize, and how these depend on the type order of the systems. We prove that, for every K $\geq$ 1, left-linear cons-free systems with type order K characterize E$^K$TIME if unrestricted evaluation is used (i.e., the system does not have a fixed reduction strategy). The main difference with prior work in implicit complexity is that (i) our results hold for non-orthogonal term rewriting systems with no assumptions on reduction strategy, (ii) we consequently obtain much larger classes for each type order (E$^K$TIME versus EXP$^{K-1}$TIME), and (iii) results for cons-free term rewriting systems have previously only been obtained for K = 1, and with additional syntactic restrictions besides cons-freeness and left-linearity. Our results are among the first implicit characterizations of the hierarchy E = E$^1$TIME $\subsetneq$ E$^2$TIME $\subsetneq$ ... Our work confirms prior results that having full non-determinism (via overlapping rules) does not directly allow for characterization of non-deterministic complexity classes like NE. We also show that non-determinism makes the classes characterized highly sensitive to minor syntactic changes like admitting product types or non-left-linear rules.Comment: extended version of a paper submitted to FSCD 2016. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1604.0893

Complexity Hierarchies and Higher-Order Cons-Free Rewriting

Constructor rewriting systems are said to be cons-free if, roughly, constructor terms in the right-hand sides of rules are subterms of constructor terms in the left-hand side; the computational intuition is that rules cannot build new data structures. It is well-known that cons-free programming languages can be used to characterize computational complexity classes, and that cons-free first-order term rewriting can be used to characterize the set of polynomial-time decidable sets. We investigate cons-free higher-order term rewriting systems, the complexity classes they characterize, and how these depend on the order of the types used in the systems. We prove that, for every k $\geq$ 1, left-linear cons-free systems with type order k characterize E$^k$TIME if arbitrary evaluation is used (i.e., the system does not have a fixed reduction strategy). The main difference with prior work in implicit complexity is that (i) our results hold for non-orthogonal term rewriting systems with possible rule overlaps with no assumptions about reduction strategy, (ii) results for such term rewriting systems have previously only been obtained for k = 1, and with additional syntactic restrictions on top of cons-freeness and left-linearity. Our results are apparently among the first implicit characterizations of the hierarchy E = E$^1$TIME $\subseteq$ E$^2$TIME $\subseteq$ .... Our work confirms prior results that having full non-determinism (via overlaps of rules) does not directly allow characterization of non-deterministic complexity classes like NE. We also show that non-determinism makes the classes characterized highly sensitive to minor syntactic changes such as admitting product types or non-left-linear rules.Comment: Extended version (with appendices) of a paper published in FSCD 201