Disproving (Positive) Almost-Sure Termination of Probabilistic Term Rewriting via Random Walks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Kassing, Jan-Christoph, Nagel, Henri, Schlecht, Alexander, Giesl, Jürgen
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Kassing, Jan-Christoph
Nagel, Henri
Schlecht, Alexander
Giesl, Jürgen
author_facet Kassing, Jan-Christoph
Nagel, Henri
Schlecht, Alexander
Giesl, Jürgen
contents In recent years, numerous techniques were developed to automatically prove termination of different kinds of probabilistic programs. However, there are only few automated methods to disprove their termination. In this paper, we present the first techniques to automatically disprove (positive) almost-sure termination of probabilistic term rewrite systems. Disproving termination of non-probabilistic systems requires finding a finite representation of an infinite computation, e.g., a loop of the rewrite system. We extend such qualitative techniques to probabilistic term rewriting, where a quantitative analysis is required. In addition to the existence of a loop, we have to count the number of such loops in order to embed suitable random walks into a computation, thereby disproving termination. To evaluate their power, we implemented all our techniques in the tool AProVE.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_16522
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Disproving (Positive) Almost-Sure Termination of Probabilistic Term Rewriting via Random Walks
Kassing, Jan-Christoph
Nagel, Henri
Schlecht, Alexander
Giesl, Jürgen
Logic in Computer Science
In recent years, numerous techniques were developed to automatically prove termination of different kinds of probabilistic programs. However, there are only few automated methods to disprove their termination. In this paper, we present the first techniques to automatically disprove (positive) almost-sure termination of probabilistic term rewrite systems. Disproving termination of non-probabilistic systems requires finding a finite representation of an infinite computation, e.g., a loop of the rewrite system. We extend such qualitative techniques to probabilistic term rewriting, where a quantitative analysis is required. In addition to the existence of a loop, we have to count the number of such loops in order to embed suitable random walks into a computation, thereby disproving termination. To evaluate their power, we implemented all our techniques in the tool AProVE.
title Disproving (Positive) Almost-Sure Termination of Probabilistic Term Rewriting via Random Walks
topic Logic in Computer Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16522