Certification Problem

Input (COPS 1650)

We consider the TRS containing the following rules:

f(f(x)) → f(g(f(x))) (1)
f(x) → x (2)

The underlying signature is as follows:

{f/1, g/1}

Property / Task

Prove or disprove confluence.

Answer / Result

No.

Proof (by csi @ CoCo 2022)

1 Non-Joinable Fork

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

t0 = f(f(f(x6)))
→ f(f(g(f(x6))))
→ f(g(f(x6)))
→ g(f(x6))
= t3

t0 = f(f(f(x6)))
→ f(f(x6))
→ f(x6)
→ x6
= t3

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