Generating polynomial orderings for termination proofs

Abstract

Most systems for the automation of termination proofs using polynomial orderings are only semi-automatic, i.e. the "right" polynomial ordering has to be given by the user. We show that a variation of Lank-ford's partial derivative technique leads to an easier and slightly more powerful method than most other semi-automatic approaches. Based on this technique we develop a method for the automated synthesis of a suited polynomial ordering.