Certification Problem

Input (COPS 657)

We consider the TRS containing the following rules:

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

The underlying signature is as follows:

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

Property / Task

Prove or disprove confluence.

Answer / Result

No.

Proof (by csi @ CoCo 2020)

1 Non-Joinable Fork

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

t0 = f(a)
→ f(c)
= t1

t0 = f(a)
→ b
= t1

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