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Description:
The undecidability of semi-unification (unification combined with matching) has been proven by Kfoury, Tiuryn, and Urzyczyn in the 1990s. The original argument is by Turing reduction from Turing machine immortality (existence of a diverging configuration). There are several aspects of the existing work which can be improved upon. First, many-one completeness of semi-unification is not established due to the use of Turing reductions. Second, existing mechanizations do not cover a comprehensive reduction from Turing machine halting to semi-unification. Third, reliance on principles such as König’s lemma or the fan theorem does not support constructivity of the arguments. Improving upon the above aspects, the present work gives a constructive many-one reduction from the Turing machine halting problem to semi-unification. This establishes many-one completeness of semi-unification. Computability of the reduction function, constructivity of the argument, and correctness of the argument is witnessed by an axiom-free mechanization in the Coq proof assistant. The mechanization is incorporated into the existing Coq library of undecidability proofs. Notably, the mechanization relies on a technique invented by Hooper in the 1960s for Turing machine immortality. An immediate consequence of the present work is an alternative approach to the constructive many-one equivalence of System F typability and System F type checking, compared to the argument established in the 1990s by Wells.