Definitions by rewriting in the Calculus of Constructions

摘要

This paper presents general syntactic conditions ensuring the strong normalisation and the logical consistency of the Calculus of Algebraic Constructions, an extension of the Calculus of Constructions with functions and predicates defined by higher-order rewrite rules. On the one hand, the Calculus of Constructions is a powerful type system in which one can formalise the propositions and natural deduction proofs of higher-order logic. On the other hand, rewriting is a simple and powerful computation paradigm. The combination of the two allows, among other things, the development of formal proofs with a reduced size and more automation compared with more traditional proof assistants. The main novelty is to consider a general form of rewriting at the predicate-level that generalises the strong elimination of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions.