Certification Problem

Input (COPS 688)

We consider the TRS containing the following rules:

c h(c,c) (1)
f(c) c (2)
f(b) b (3)
a b (4)
a h(h(a,a),h(c,b)) (5)

The underlying signature is as follows:

{c/0, h/2, f/1, b/0, a/0}

Property / Task

Prove or disprove confluence.

Answer / Result

No.

Proof (by ACP @ CoCo 2020)

1 Non-Joinable Fork

The system is not confluent due to the following forking derivations.

t0 = f(f(c))
f(c)
f(h(c,c))
= t2

t0 = f(f(c))
f(c)
c
= t2

The two resulting terms cannot be joined for the following reason: