Unification of Simply Typed Lambda-Terms as Logic Programming

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Technical Reports (CIS)
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Miller, Dale
Contributor
Abstract

The unification of simply typed λ-terms modulo the rules of ß- and η-conversions is often called "higher-order" unification because of the possible presence of variables of functional type. This kind of unification is undecidable in general and if unifiers exist, most general unifiers may not exist. In this paper, we show that such unification problems can be coded as a query of the logic programming language Lλ in a natural and clear fashion. In a sense, the translation only involves explicitly axiomatizing in Lλ the notions of equality and substitution of the simply typed λ-calculus: the rest of the unification process can be viewed as simply an interpreter of Lλ searching for proofs using those axioms.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
1991-03-01
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science, Technical Report No. MS-CIS-91-24.
Recommended citation
Collection