Certification Problem

Input (COPS 707)

We consider the TRS containing the following rules:

c a (1)
f(f(c)) c (2)
f(c) a (3)

The underlying signature is as follows:

{c/0, a/0, f/1}

Property / Task

Prove or disprove confluence.

Answer / Result

No.

Proof (by ACP @ CoCo 2021)

1 Non-Joinable Fork

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

t0 = f(f(f(f(f(f(c))))))
f(f(f(f(c))))
f(f(c))
f(a)
= t3

t0 = f(f(f(f(f(f(c))))))
f(f(f(f(c))))
f(f(c))
c
a
= t4

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