Termination orderings for associative-commutative rewriting systems

In this paper we describe a new class of orderings—associative path orderings—for proving termination of associative-commutative term rewriting systems .These orderings are based on the concept of simplification orderings and extend the well-known recursive path orderings to E - congruence classes, where E is an equational theory consisting of associativity and commutativity axioms. Associative path orderings are applicable to term rewriting systems for which a precedence ordering on the set of operator symbols can be defined that satisfies a certain condition,the associative path condition. The precedence ordering can often be derived from the structure of the reduction rules. We include termination proofs for various term rewriting systems (for rings,boolean algebra,etc.) and, in addition, point out ways to handle situations where the associative path condition is too restrictive

CoLoR: a Coq library on well-founded rewrite relations and its application to the automated verification of termination certificates

Termination is an important property of programs; notably required for programs formulated in proof assistants. It is a very active subject of research in the Turing-complete formalism of term rewriting systems, where many methods and tools have been developed over the years to address this problem. Ensuring reliability of those tools is therefore an important issue. In this paper we present a library formalizing important results of the theory of well-founded (rewrite) relations in the proof assistant Coq. We also present its application to the automated verification of termination certificates, as produced by termination tools

Dynamic Features of Topographical Multiset Orderings for Terms

Multiset orderings are usually used to prove the termination of production systems in comparing elements directly with respect to a given precedence ordering. Topographical multiset orderings are based on the position of elements in the graph induced by the precedence. This concept results in more flexible and stronger multiset orderings. To support. the dynamic aspect of incremental refinement of a multiset ordering the notion of Depth Graphs is introduced. This concept leads to the use of a graph of which the nodes are terms [instead of constants and function symbols]. It replaces the standard precedence graph. Moreover, it can be used to define a new recursive decomposition ordering on terms which is stronger than the original one

A general framework for Noetherian well ordered polynomial reductions

Polynomial reduction is one of the main tools in computational algebra with innumerable applications in many areas, both pure and applied. Since many years both the theory and an efficient design of the related algorithm have been solidly established. This paper presents a general definition of polynomial reduction structure, studies its features and highlights the aspects needed in order to grant and to efficiently test the main properties (noetherianity, confluence, ideal membership). The most significant aspect of this analysis is a negative reappraisal of the role of the notion of term order which is usually considered a central and crucial tool in the theory. In fact, as it was already established in the computer science context in relation with termination of algorithms, most of the properties can be obtained simply considering a well-founded ordering, while the classical requirement that it be preserved by multiplication is irrelevant. The last part of the paper shows how the polynomial basis concepts present in literature are interpreted in our language and their properties are consequences of the general results established in the first part of the paper.Comment: 36 pages. New title and substantial improvements to the presentation according to the comments of the reviewer

Constrained completion: Theory, implementation, and results

The Knuth-Bendix completion procedure produces complete sets of reductions but can not handle certain rewrite rules such as commutativity. In order to handle such theories, completion procedure were created to find complete sets of reductions modulo an equational theory. The major problem with this method is that it requires a specialized unification algorithm for the equational theory. Although this method works well when such an algorithm exists, these algorithms are not always available and thus alternative methods are needed to attack problems. A way of doing this is to use a completion procedure which finds complete sets of constrained reductions. This type of completion procedure neither requires specialized unification algorithms nor will it fail due to unorientable identities. We present a look at complete sets of reductions with constraints, developed by Gerald Peterson, and the implementation of such a completion procedure for use with HIPER - a fast completion system. The completion procedure code is given and shown correct along with the various support procedures which are needed by the constrained system. These support procedures include a procedure to find constraints using the lexicographic path ordering and a normal form procedure for constraints. The procedure has been implemented for use under the fast HIPER system, developed by Jim Christian, and thus is quick. We apply this new system, HIPER- extension, to attack a variety of word problems. Implementation alternatives are discussed, developed, and compared with each other as well as with the HIPER system. Finally, we look at the problem of finding a complete set of reductions for a ternary boolean algebra. Given are alternatives to attacking this problem and the already known solution along with its run in the HIPER-extension system --Abstract, page iii

Solving polynomial constraints for proving termination of rewriting

A termination problem can be transformed into a set of polynomial constraints. Up to now, several approaches have been studied to deal with these constraints as constraint solving problems. In this thesis, we study in depth some of these approaches, present some advances in each approach.Navarro Marset, RA. (2008). Solving polynomial constraints for proving termination of rewriting. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/13626Archivo delegad