Abstract
We prove for a well-known acyclic logic programP that it is undecidable whether or not a given goal is a logical consequence of the completion ofP. This complements recent decidability results for acyclic programs and bounded goals.
References
Apt, K. R., “Logic Programming,” inHandbook of Theoretical Computer Science (J. van Leeuwen, ed.), North Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 495–574, 1990.
Apt, K. R. and Bezem, M., “Acyclic Programs,”New Generation Computing, 9, pp. 335–363, 1991.
Bezem, M., “Strong Termination of Logic Programs,”Journal of Logic Programming, 15, pp. 79–97, 1993.
Clark, K. L., “Negation as Failure,” inLogic and Data Bases (H. Gallaire. and J. Minker, eds.), Plenum Press, New York, pp. 293–322, 1978.
Goldfarb, W. D., “The Undecidability of the Second-Order Unification Problem,”Theoretical Computer Science, 13, pp. 225–230, 1981.
Lloyd, J. W.,Foundations of Logic Programming, Second Edition, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1987.
Matijacevič, Yu., “Enumerable Sets Are Diophantine,”Dokl. Acad. Nauk SSSR, 191, pp. 279–282, 1970. (Improved English translation:Soviet Math. Dokl., 11, pp. 354–357, 197?.)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This paper is an addendum to “Acyclic Programs” which was published inNew Generation Computing, Vol. 9 Nos. 3 & 4, 1991.
Jan Keuzenkamp: He became an application programmer (COBOL) at the computer centre of the dutch tax administration in 1975. At the same time he took courses in computer science, finishing in 1983. In 1984 he started studying mathematics and computer science (parttime) at Utrecht university. He graduated in 1992.
Dr. Marc Bezem: He is serving as an associate professor in Dept. of Philosophy, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He received a bechelor's degree, master's degree and Dr. degree in mathematics from Utrecht University in 1978, 1981 and 1986 respectively. His dissertation was on a topic in formal logic. Thereafter he joined the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam to work on the logical foundations of AI. In 1991 he returned to Utrecht. His current research interest is typed lambda calculus.
About this article
Cite this article
Bezem, M., Keuzenkamp, J. Undecidable goals for completed acyclic programs. New Gener Comput 12, 209–213 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037342
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037342