Certification Problem

Input (COPS 392)

We consider the TRS containing the following rules:

c f(a,b) (1)
c f(a,a) (2)
f(x,x) x (3)
f(x,y) f(y,x) (4)
f(a,a) f(b,b) (5)
f(b,b) f(a,a) (6)

The underlying signature is as follows:

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

Property / Task

Prove or disprove confluence.

Answer / Result

No.

Proof (by ACP @ CoCo 2022)

1 Non-Joinable Fork

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

t0 = f(b,b)
f(a,a)
a
= t2

t0 = f(b,b)
b
= t1

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