Summary: Generating Polynomial Orderings for
Termination Proofs ?
J¨urgen Giesl
FB Informatik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt,
Alexanderstr. 10, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany
Email: giesl@inferenzsysteme.informatik.th­darmstadt.de
Abstract. Most systems for the automation of termination proofs using
polynomial orderings are only semi­automatic, i.e. the ``right'' polynomial
ordering has to be given by the user. We show that a variation of Lank­
ford's partial derivative technique leads to an easier and slightly more
powerful method than most other semi­automatic approaches. Based on
this technique we develop a method for the automated synthesis of a
suited polynomial ordering.
1 Introduction
A term rewriting system (trs) R is terminating for a set of terms T if there
exists no infinite derivation of terms in T . While in general this problem is un­
decidable [HL78], several methods for proving termination have been developed,
cf. [Der87]. We present a method for automated termination proofs using poly­
nomial orderings, which is based on a variant of Lankford's partial derivative
technique (section 2). Our method can be used both in a semi­automatic and a

Source: Ábrahám, Erika - Fachgruppe Informatik, Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH)

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences