Termination of rewrite relations on λ-terms based on Girard's notion of reducibility

Abstract

In this paper, we show how to extend the notion of reducibility introduced by Girard for proving the termination of β-reduction in the polymorphic λ-calculus, to prove the termination of various kinds of rewrite relations on λ-terms, including rewriting modulo some equational theory and rewriting with matching modulo βη, by using the notion of computability closure. This provides a powerful termination criterion for various higher-order rewriting frameworks, including Klop's Combinatory Reductions Systems with simple types and Nipkow's Higher-order Rewrite Systems.