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Narrowing based procedures for equational disunification

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Abstract

We show thatE-disunification is semi-decidable when the theoryE is presented by a ground convergent rewrite system, and we give a sound and completeE-disunification procedure based on narrowing. A variant of the procedure allows solving systems of equations and disequations, such as the ones that appear in logic programming languages. We show two cases where the efficiency of theE-disunification procedure is similar to the efficiency of theE-unification procedure, namely theories with free constructors and left linear systems. We also show that, in the general case,E-disunification is not decidable even whenE-unification is decidable and finitary.

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  1. LRI, Bâtiment 490, CNRS/Université de Paris-Sud, F-91405, Orsay Cedex, France

    Maribel Fernández

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  1. Maribel Fernández
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Fernández, M. Narrowing based procedures for equational disunification. AAECC 3, 1–26 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01189020

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