String unification is essentially infinitary

A unifier of two terms s and t is a substitution sigma such that ssigma=tsigma and for first-order terms there exists a most general unifier sigma in the sense that any other unifier delta can be composed from sigma with some substitution lambda, i.e. delta=sigmacirclambda. This notion can be generalised to E-unificationwhere E is an equational theory, =_{E} is equality under E andsigmaa is an E-unifier if ssigma =_{E}tsigma. Depending on the equational theory E, the set of most general unifiers is always a singleton (as above), or it may have more than one, either finitely or infinitely many unifiers and for some theories it may not even exist, in which case we call the theory of type nullary. String unification (or Löb\u27s problem, Markov\u27s problem, unification of word equations or Makanin\u27s problem as it is often called in the literature) is the E-unification problem, where E = {f(x,f(y,z))=f(f(x,y),z)}, i.e. unification under associativity or string unification once we drop the fs and the brackets. It is well known that this problem is infinitary and decidable. Essential unifiers, as introduced by Hoche and Szabo, generalise the notion of a most general unifier and have a dramatically pleasant effect on the set of most general unifiers: the set of essential unifiers is often much smaller than the set of most general unifiers. Essential unification may even reduce an infinitary theory to an essentially finitary theory. The most dramatic reduction known so far is obtained for idempotent semigroups or bands as they are called in computer science: bands are of type nullary, i.e. there exist two unifiable terms s and t, but the set of most general unifiers is not enumerable. This is in stark contrast to essential unification: the set of essential unifiers for bands always exists and is finite. We show in this paper that the early hope for a similar reduction of unification under associativity is not justified: string unification is essentially infinitary. But we give an enumeration algorithm for essential unifiers. And beyond, this algorithm terminates when the considered problem is finitary

Unification theory

The purpose of this paper is not to give an overview of the state of art in unification theory. It is intended to be a short introduction into the area of equational unification which should give the reader a feeling for what unification theory might be about. The basic notions such as complete and minimal complete sets of unifiers, and unification types of equational theories are introduced and illustrated by examples. Then we shall describe the original motivations for considering unification (in the empty theory) in resolution theorem proving and term rewriting. Starting with Robinson\u27s first unification algorithm it will be sketched how more efficient unification algorithms can be derived. We shall then explain the reasons which lead to the introduction of unification in non-empty theories into the above mentioned areas theorem proving and term rewriting. For theory unification it makes a difference whether single equations or systems of equations are considered. In addition, one has to be careful with regard to the signature over which the terms of the unification problems can be built. This leads to the distinction between elementary unification, unification with constants, and general unification (where arbitrary free function symbols may occur). Going from elementary unification to general unification is an instance of the so-called combination problem for equational theories which can be formulated as follows: Let E, F be equational theories over disjoint signatures. How can unification algorithms for E, F be combined to a unification algorithm for the theory E cup F

Unification in Commutative Theories, Hilbert's Basis Theorem, and Gröbner Bases

Unification in a commutative theory E may be reduced to solving linear equations in the corresponding semiring S(E) (Nutt (1988)). The unification type of E can thus be characterized by algebraic properties of S(E). The theory of abelian groups with n commuting homomorphisms corresponds to the semiring Z[X1,...,Xn]. Thus Hilbert’s Basis Theorem can be used to show that this theory is unitary. But this argument does not yield a unification algorithm. Linear equations in Z[X1,..,Xn] can be solved with the help of Gröbner Base methods, which thus provide the desired algorithm. The theory of abelian monoids with a homomorphism is of type zero (Baader (1988)). This can also be proved by using the fact that the corresponding semiring, namely N[X], is not noetherian. An other example of a semiring (even ring), which is not noetherian, is the ring Z, where X1, ..., Xn ( n > 1 ) are non-commuting indeterminates. This semiring corresponds to the theory of abelian groups with n non-commuting homomorphisms. Surprisingly, by construction of a Gröbner Base algorithm for right ideals in Z, it can be shown that this theory is unitary unifying