Decidability for Left-Linear Growing Term Rewriting Systems

A term rewriting system is called growing if each variable occurring on both the left-hand side and the right-hand side of a rewrite rule occurs at depth zero or one in the left-hand side. Jacquemard showed that the reachability and the sequentiality of linear (i.e., left-right-linear) growing term rewriting systems are decidable. In this paper we show that Jacquemard's result can be extended to left-linear growing rewriting systems that may have right-nonlinear rewrite rules. This implies that the reachability and the joinability of some class of right-linear term rewriting systems are decidable, which improves the results for right-ground term rewriting systems by Oyamaguchi. Our result extends the class of left-linear term rewriting systems having a decidable call-by-need normalizing strategy. Moreover, we prove that the termination property is decidable for almost orthogonal growing term rewriting systems.     

Reachability Problems on Regular Ground Tree Rewriting Graphs

We consider the transition graphs of regular ground tree (or term) rewriting systems. The vertex set of such a graph is a (possibly infinite) set of trees. Thus, with a finite tree automaton one can represent a regular set of vertices. It is known that the backward closure of sets of vertices under the rewriting relation preserves regularity, i.e., for a regular set T of vertices the set of vertices from which one can reach T can be accepted by a tree automaton. The main contribution of this paper is to lift this result to the recurrence problem, i.e., we show that the set of vertices from which one can reach infinitely often a regular set T is regular, too. Since this result is effective, it implies that the problem whether, given a tree t and a regular set T, there is a path starting in t that infinitely often reaches T, is decidable. Furthermore, it is shown that the problems whether all paths starting in t eventually (respectively, infinitely often) reach T, are undecidable. Based on the decidability result we define a fragment of temporal logic with a decidable model-checking problem for the class of regular ground tree rewriting graphs.     

Sufficient-completeness,ground-reducibility and their complexity

Summary The sufficient-completeness property of equational algebraic specifications has been found useful in providing guidelines for designing abstract data type specifications as well as in proving inductive properties using the induction-less-induction method. The sufficient-completeness property is known to be undecidable in general. In an earlier paper, it was shown to be decidable for constructor-preserving, complete (canonical) term rewriting systems, even when there are relations among constructor symbols. In this paper, the complexity of the sufficient-completeness property is analyzed for different classes of term rewriting systems. A number of results about the complexity of the sufficient-completeness property for complete (canonical) term rewriting systems are proved: (i) The problem is co-NP-complete for term rewriting systems with free constructors (i.e., no relations among constructors are allowed), (ii) the problem remains co-NP-complete for term rewriting systems with unary and nullary constructors, even when there are relations among constructors, (iii) the problem is provably in almost exponential time for left-linear term rewriting systems with relations among constructors, and (iv) for left-linear complete constructor-preserving rewriting systems, the problem can be decided in steps exponential innlogn wheren is the size of the rewriting system. No better lower-bound for the complexity of the sufficient-completeness property for complete (canonical) term rewriting system with nonlinear left-hand sides is known. An algorithm for left-linear complete constructor-preserving rewriting systems is also discussed. Finally, the sufficient-completeness property is shown to be undecidable for non-linear complete term rewriting systems with associative functions. These complexity results also apply to the ground-reducibility property (also called inductive-reducibility) which is known to be directly related to the sufficient-completeness property.Some of the results in this paper were reported in a paper titled Complexity of Sufficient-Completeness presented at theSixth Conf. on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, New Delhi, India, Dec. 1986. The term quasi-reducibility is replaced in this paper by ground-reducibility as the latter seems to convey a lot more about the concept than the former.Partially supported by the National Science Foundation Grant nos. CCR-8408461 and CCR-8906678Partially supported by the National Science Foundation Grant nos. CCR-8408461 and CCR-9009414Partially supported by the National Science Foundation Grant no. DCR-8603184     

Termination Proofs for String Rewriting Systems via Inverse Match-Bounds

Annotating a letter by a number, one can record information about its history during a rewrite derivation. In each rewrite step, numbers in the reduct are updated depending on the redex numbering. A string rewriting system is called match-bounded if there is a global upper bound to these numbers. Match-boundedness is known to be a strong sufficient criterion for both termination and preservation of regular languages. We show that the string rewriting systems whose inverse (left and right hand sides exchanged) is match-bounded, also have exceptional properties, but slightly different ones. Inverse match-bounded systems need not terminate; they effectively preserve context-free languages; their sets of normalizable strings and their sets of immortal strings are effectively regular. These languages can be used to decide the normalization, the uniform normalization, the termination and the uniform termination problem for inverse match-bounded systems. We also prove that the termination problem is decidable in linear time, and that a certain strong reachability problem is decidable, thereby solving two open problems of McNaughton’s. Like match-bounds, inverse match-bounds entail linear derivational complexity on the set of terminating strings.     

On deciding whether a monoid is a free monoid or is a group

Summary In general it is undecidable whether or not the monoid described by a given finite presentation is a free monoid or a group. However, these two decision problems are reducible to a very restricted form of the uniform word problem. So whenever a class of presentations is considered for which this restricted form of the uniform word problem is decidable, then the above decision problems become decidable. This holds in particular for the class of all presentations involving finite string-rewriting systems that are noetherian and confluent.     

A decidable word problem without equivalent canonical term rewriting system

We present a weak associative single-axiom system having the following property: the word problem is decidable with an efficient algorithm even though there does not exist any finite equivalent canonical term rewriting system.     

Finite complete rewriting systems and the complexity of the word problem

Summary It is well known that the word problem for a finite complete rewriting system is decidable. Here it is shown that in general this result cannot be improved. This is done by proving that each sufficiently rich complexity class can be realized by the word problem for a finite complete rewriting system. Further, there is a gap between the complexity of the word problem for a finite complete rewriting system and the complexity of the least upper bound for the lengths of the chains generated by this rewriting system, and this gap can get arbitrarily large. Thus, the lengths of these chains do not give any information about the complexity of the word problem. Finally, it is shown that the property of allowing a finite complete rewriting system is not an invariant of finite monoid presentations.Some of the results presented here are from the doctoral dissertation of the first author, which was supervised by Prof. H. Brakhage at the University of Kaiserslautern     

Reachability and confluence are undecidable for flat term rewriting systems

Ground reachability, ground joinability and confluence are shown undecidable for flat term rewriting systems, i.e., systems in which all left and right members of rule have depth at most one.     

The undecidability of the unification and matching problem for canonical theories

Summary The problem whether there exists a unifying substitution for two terms is considered in the class of theories which can be embedded into canonical term rewriting systems. The problem is shown to be undecidable, even if we restrict the substitutions to matching ones. This implies that the class of admissible canonical theories is a proper subset of the class of canonical theories.     

On tree automata that certify termination of left-linear term rewriting systems

We present a new method for automatically proving termination of left-linear term rewriting systems on a given regular language of terms. It is a generalization of the match bound method for string rewriting. To prove that a term rewriting system terminates we first construct an enriched system over a new signature that simulates the original derivations. The enriched system is an infinite system over an infinite signature, but it is locally terminating: every restriction of the enriched system to a finite signature is terminating. We then construct iteratively a finite tree automaton that accepts the enriched given regular language and is closed under rewriting modulo the enriched system. If this procedure stops, then the enriched system is compact: every enriched derivation involves only a finite signature. Therefore, the original system terminates. We present two methods to construct the enrichment: roof heights for left-linear systems, and match heights for linear systems. For linear systems, the method is strengthened further by a forward closure construction. Using these methods, we give examples for automated termination proofs that cannot be obtained by standard methods.     

使用控制授权模型的安全性研究*

在基于策略的模型中,研究了使用控制授权模型的安全特性,首先分析了在一般使用控制授权模型中安全问题的不确定性;然后在限定属性值范围和无生成策略的条件下,说明了安全问题的确定性;最后通过释放生成策略的限制,在非连通的属性生成图和包含生成父属性的属性更新图中,证明了安全问题的确定性.     

Termination of linear programs with nonlinear constraints

Tiwari (2004) proved that the termination problem of a class of linear programs (loops with linear loop conditions and updates) over the reals is decidable through Jordan forms and eigenvector computation. Braverman (2006) proved that it is also decidable over the integers. Following their work, we consider the termination problems of three more general classes of programs which are loops with linear updates and three kinds of polynomial loop conditions, i.e., strict constraints, non-strict constraints and both strict and non-strict constraints, respectively. First, we prove that the termination problems of such loops over the integers are all undecidable. Then, for each class we provide an algorithm to decide the termination of such programs over the reals. The algorithms are complete for those programs satisfying a property, Non-Zero Minimum.     

Interval logics and their decision procedures : Part II: a real-time interval logic

In a companion paper, we presented an interval logic, and showed that it is elementarily decidable. In this paper we extend the logic to allow reasoning about real-time properties of concurrent systems; we call this logic real-time future interval logic (RTFIL). We model time by the real numbers, and allow our syntax to state the bounds on the duration of an interval. RTFIL possesses the “real-time interpolation property,” which appears to be the natural quantitative counterpart of invariance under finite stuttering. As the main result of this paper, we show that RTFIL is decidable; the decision algorithm is slightly more expensive than for the untimed logic. Our decidability proof is based on the reduction of the satisfiability problem for the logic to the emptiness problem for timed Büchi automata. The latter problem was shown decidable by Alur and Dill in a landmark paper, in which this real-time extension of ω-automata was introduced. Finally, we consider an extension of the logic that allows intervals to be constructed by means of “real-time offsets”, and show that even this simple extension renders the logic highly undecidable.     

Single Versus Simultaneous Equational Unification and Equational Unification for Variable-Permuting Theories

A clear distinction is made between the (elementary) unification problem where there is only one pair of terms to be unified, and the simultaneous unification problem, where many such pairs have to be unified simultaneously – it is shown that there exists a finite, depth-reducing, linear, and confluent term-rewriting system R such that the (single) equational unification problem mod R is decidable, while the simultaneous equational unification problem mod R is undecidable. Also a finite set E of variable-permuting equations is constructed such that equational unification is undecidable mod E, thus settling an open problem. The equational matching problem for variable-permuting theories is shown to be PSPACE-complete.     

Simulating perfect channels with probabilistic lossy channels

We consider the problem of deciding whether an infinite-state system (expressed as a Markov chain) satisfies a correctness property with probability 1. This problem is, of course, undecidable for general infinite-state systems. We focus our attention on the model of probabilistic lossy channel systems consisting of finite-state processes that communicate over unbounded lossy FIFO channels. Abdulla and Jonsson have shown that safety properties are decidable while progress properties are undecidable for non-probabilistic lossy channel systems. Under assumptions of “sufficiently high” probability of loss, Baier and Engelen have shown how to check whether a property holds of probabilistic lossy channel system with probability 1. In this paper, we consider a model of probabilistic lossy channel systems, where messages can be lost only during send transitions. In contrast to the model of Baier and Engelen, once a message is successfully sent to channel, it can only be removed through a transition which receives the message. We show that checking whether safety properties hold with probability 1 is undecidable for this model. Our proof depends upon simulating a perfect channel, with a high degree of confidence, using lossy channels.     

Testing Positiveness of Polynomials

Many problems in mathematics, logic, computer science, and engineering can be reduced to the problem of testing positiveness of polynomials (over real numbers). Although the problem is decidable (shown by Tarski in 1930), the general decision methods are not always practically applicable because of their high computational time requirements. Thus several partial methods were proposed in the field of term rewriting systems. In this paper, we exactly determine how partial these methods are, and we propose simpler and/or more efficient methods with the same power.     

Robustness of decentralized knowledge systems: a grammar-theoretic view

This paper introduces the formal framework of grammar systems to handle a practical and important property of decentralized rule-based knowledge systems. The property is called robustness. In our framework, a rule-based system is robust when some rules can be removed from it and yet its critical functionality remains unchanged. As a theoretical framework for study robustness of decentralized rule-based systems we use grammar systems. We prove within that framework that the question whether a knowledge system is robust or not is undecidable. In contrast, we prove with the same framework that whether or not a component is ever enabled, or whether or not a component working in a special—so called maximal—mode blocks the further functioningof a systems when enabled, are decidable. Some open problems are also formulated.     

Characterizing and proving operational termination of deterministic conditional term rewriting systems

We investigate the practically crucial property of operational termination of deterministic conditional term rewriting systems (DCTRSs), an important declarative programming paradigm. We show that operational termination can be equivalently characterized by the newly introduced notion of context-sensitive quasi-reductivity. Based on this characterization and an unraveling transformation of DCTRSs into context-sensitive (unconditional) rewrite systems (CSRSs), context-sensitive quasi-reductivity of a DCTRS is shown to be equivalent to termination of the resulting CSRS on original terms (i.e., terms over the signature of the DCTRS). This result enables both proving and disproving operational termination of given DCTRSs via transformation into CSRSs. A concrete procedure for this restricted termination analysis (on original terms) is proposed and encouraging benchmarks obtained by the termination tool VMTL, that utilizes this approach, are presented. Finally, we show that the context-sensitive unraveling transformation is sound and complete for collapse-extended termination, thus solving an open problem of Duran et al. (2008) [10].     

On sufficient-completeness and related properties of term rewriting systems

Summary The decidability of the sufficient completeness property of equational specifications satisfying certain conditions is shown. In addition, the decidability of the related concept of quasi-reducibility of a term with respect to a set of rules is proved. Other results about irreducible ground terms of a term rewriting system also follow from a key technical lemma used in these decidability proofs; this technical lemma states that there is a finite bound on the substitutions of ground terms that need to be considered in order to check for a given term, whether the result obtained by any substitution of ground terms into the term is irreducible. These results are first shown for untyped systems and are subsequently extended to typed systems.Partially supported by the National Science Foundation Grant no. DCR-8408461     

An initial algebra approach to term rewriting systems with variable binders

We present an extension of first-order term rewriting systems. It involves variable binding in the term language. We develop systems called binding term rewriting systems (BTRSs) in a stepwise manner. First we present the term language, then formulate equational logic. Finally, we define rewriting systems. This development is novel because we follow the initial algebra approach in an extended notion of Σ-algebras in various functor categories. These are based on Fiore-Plotkin-Turi’s presheaf semantics of variable binding and Lüth-Ghani’s monadic semantics of term rewriting systems. We characterise the terms, equational logic and rewrite systems for BTRSs as initial algebras in suitable categories. Then, we show an important rewriting property of BTRSs: orthogonal BTRSs are confluent. Moreover, by using the initial algebra semantics, we give a complete characterisation of termination of BTRSs. Finally, we discuss our design choice of BTRSs from a semantic perspective. An erlier version appeared in Proc. Fifth ACM-SIGPLAN International Conference on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming (PPDP2003).