We consider the system 453.

  Alphabet:

    a : [] --> o 
    b : [] --> o 
    c : [] --> o 
    f : [o * o] --> o 

  Rules:

    f(a, X) => f(b, X) 
    a => b 
    b => c 

We observe that the rules contain a first-order subset:

  f(a, X) => f(b, X) 
  a => b 
  b => c 

Moreover, the system is finitely branching.  Thus, by [Kop12, Thm. 7.55], we may omit all first-order dependency pairs from the dependency pair problem (DP(R), R) if this first-order part is Ce-terminating when seen as a many-sorted first-order TRS.

According to the external first-order termination prover, this system is indeed Ce-terminating:

 || proof of resources/system.trs
 || # AProVE Commit ID: d84c10301d352dfd14de2104819581f4682260f5 fuhs 20130616
 || 
 || 
 || Termination w.r.t. Q of the given QTRS could be proven:
 || 
 || (0) QTRS
 || (1) QTRSRRRProof [EQUIVALENT]
 || (2) QTRS
 || (3) QTRSRRRProof [EQUIVALENT]
 || (4) QTRS
 || (5) RisEmptyProof [EQUIVALENT]
 || (6) YES
 || 
 || 
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (0)
 || Obligation:
 || Q restricted rewrite system:
 || The TRS R consists of the following rules:
 || 
 ||    f(a, %X) -> f(b, %X)
 ||    a -> b
 ||    b -> c
 ||    ~PAIR(%X, %Y) -> %X
 ||    ~PAIR(%X, %Y) -> %Y
 || 
 || Q is empty.
 || 
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (1) QTRSRRRProof (EQUIVALENT)
 || Used ordering:
 || Polynomial interpretation [POLO]:
 || 
 ||    POL(a) = 2
 ||    POL(b) = 2
 ||    POL(c) = 1
 ||    POL(f(x_1, x_2)) = 2*x_1 + x_2
 ||    POL(~PAIR(x_1, x_2)) = 2 + x_1 + x_2
 || With this ordering the following rules can be removed by the rule removal processor [LPAR04] because they are oriented strictly:
 || 
 ||    b -> c
 ||    ~PAIR(%X, %Y) -> %X
 ||    ~PAIR(%X, %Y) -> %Y
 || 
 || 
 || 
 || 
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (2)
 || Obligation:
 || Q restricted rewrite system:
 || The TRS R consists of the following rules:
 || 
 ||    f(a, %X) -> f(b, %X)
 ||    a -> b
 || 
 || Q is empty.
 || 
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (3) QTRSRRRProof (EQUIVALENT)
 || Used ordering:
 || Polynomial interpretation [POLO]:
 || 
 ||    POL(a) = 2
 ||    POL(b) = 1
 ||    POL(f(x_1, x_2)) = 2*x_1 + x_2
 || With this ordering the following rules can be removed by the rule removal processor [LPAR04] because they are oriented strictly:
 || 
 ||    f(a, %X) -> f(b, %X)
 ||    a -> b
 || 
 || 
 || 
 || 
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (4)
 || Obligation:
 || Q restricted rewrite system:
 || R is empty.
 || Q is empty.
 || 
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (5) RisEmptyProof (EQUIVALENT)
 || The TRS R is empty. Hence, termination is trivially proven.
 || ----------------------------------------
 || 
 || (6)
 || YES
 || 
We use the dependency pair framework as described in [Kop12, Ch. 6/7], with dynamic dependency pairs.

We thus obtain the following dependency pair problem (P_0, R_0, minimal, formative):

  Dependency Pairs P_0:


  Rules R_0:

    f(a, X) => f(b, X) 
    a => b 
    b => c 

Thus, the original system is terminating if (P_0, R_0, minimal, formative) is finite.

We consider the dependency pair problem (P_0, R_0, minimal, formative).

We place the elements of P in a dependency graph approximation G (see e.g. [Kop12, Thm. 7.27, 7.29], as follows:


This graph has no strongly connected components.  By [Kop12, Thm. 7.31], this implies finiteness of the dependency pair problem.

As all dependency pair problems were succesfully simplified with sound (and complete) processors until nothing remained, we conclude termination.


+++ Citations +++

[Kop12]  C. Kop.  Higher Order Termination.  PhD Thesis, 2012.