Nominal rewriting

  • Authors:
  • Maribel Fernández;Murdoch J. Gabbay

  • Affiliations:
  • King's College London, Department of Computer Science, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK;King's College London, Department of Computer Science, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK

  • Venue:
  • Information and Computation
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Nominal rewriting is based on the observation that if we add support for @a-equivalence to first-order syntax using the nominal-set approach, then systems with binding, including higher-order reduction schemes such as @l-calculus beta-reduction, can be smoothly represented. Nominal rewriting maintains a strict distinction between variables of the object-language (atoms) and of the meta-language (variables or unknowns). Atoms may be bound by a special abstraction operation, but variables cannot be bound, giving the framework a pronounced first-order character, since substitution of terms for variables is not capture-avoiding. We show how good properties of first-order rewriting survive the extension, by giving an efficient rewriting algorithm, a critical pair lemma, and a confluence theorem for orthogonal systems.