Theory of finite or infinite trees revisited

Abstract

AbstractWe present in this paper a first-order axiomatization of an extended theoryTof finite or infinite trees, built on a signature containing an infinite set of function symbols and a relationfinite(t), which enables to distinguish between finite and infinite trees. We show thatThas at least one model and prove its completeness by giving not only a decision procedure, but a full first-order constraint solver that gives clear and explicit solutions for any first-order constraint satisfaction problem inT. The solver is given in the form of 16 rewriting rules that transform any first-order constraintinto an equivalent disjunction φ of simple formulas such that φ is either the formulatrueor the formulafalseor a formula having at least one free variable, being equivalent neither totruenor tofalseand where the solutions of the free variables are expressed in a clear and explicit way. The correctness of our rules implies the completeness ofT. We also describe an implementation of our algorithm in CHR (Constraint Handling Rules) and compare the performance with an implementation in C++ and that of a recent decision procedure for decomposable theories.