Termination of Nested and Mutually Recursive Algorithms

Abstract

This paper deals with automated termination analysis for functional programs. Previously developed methods for automated termination proofs of functional programs often fail for algorithms with nested recursion and they cannot handle algorithms with mutual recursion. We show that termination proofs for nested and mutually recursive algorithms can be performed without having to prove the correctness of the algorithms simultaneously. Using this result, nested and mutually recursive algorithms do no longer constitute a special problem and the existing methods for automated termination analysis can be extended to nested and mutual recursion in a straightforward way. We give some examples of algorithms whose termination can now be proved automatically (including well-known challenge problems such as McCarthy’s f_91 function).