Let S be some type system. A typing in S for a typable term M is the collection of all of the information other than M which appears in the final judgement of a proof derivation showing that M is typable. For example, suppose there is a derivation in S ending with the judgement A M : # meaning that M has result type # when assuming the types of free variables are given by A. Then (A, #) is a typing for M .

Girard and Reynolds independently invented System F (a.k.a. the second-order polymorphically typed lambda calculus) to handle problems in logic and computer programming language design, respectively. Viewing F in the Curry style, which associates types with untyped lambda terms, raises the questions of typability and type checking . Typability asks for a term whether there exists some type it can be given. Type checking asks, for a particular term and type, whether the term can be given that type. The decidability of these problems has been settled for restrictions and extensions of F and related systems and complexity lower-bounds have been determined for typability in F, but this report is the rst to resolve whether these problems are decidable for System F. This report proves that type checking in F is undecidable, by a reduction from semiuni cation, and that typability in F is undecidable, by a reduction from type checking. Because there is an easy reduction from typability to typ...

Principality of typings is the property that for each typable term, there is a typing from which all other typings are obtained via some set of operations. Type inference is the problem of finding a typing for a given term, if possible. We define an intersection type system which has principal typings and types exactly the strongly normalizable -terms. More interestingly, every finite-rank restriction of this system (using Leivant's first notion of rank) has principal typings and also has decidable type inference. This is in contrast to System F where the finite rank restriction for every finite rank at 3 and above has neither principal typings nor decidable type inference. This is also in contrast to earlier presentations of intersection types where the status (decidable or undecidable) of these properties is unknown for the finiterank restrictions at 3 and above. Furthermore, the notion of principal typings for our system involves only one operation, substitution, rather than severa...

Principality of typings is the property that for each typable term, there is a typing from which all other typings are obtained via some set of operations. Type inference is the problem of finding a typing for a given term, if possible. We define an intersection type system which has principal typings and types exactly the strongly normalizable #-terms. More interestingly, every finite-rank restriction of this system (using Leivant's first notion of rank) has principal typings and also has decidable type inference.

Although systems with intersection types have many unique capabilities, there has never been a fully satisfactory explicitly typed system with intersection types. We introduce and prove the basic properties of # , a typed #-calculus with branching types and types with quantification over type selection parameters. The new system # an explicitly typed system with the same expressiveness as a system with intersection types. Typing derivations in # use branching types to squash together what would be separate parallel derivations in earlier systems with intersection types.

We consider the problems of typability and type checking in the Girard/Reynolds second-order polymorphic typed-calculus, for which we use the short name "System F" and which we use in the "Curry style" where types are assigned to pure-terms. These problems have been considered and proven to be decidable or undecidable for various restrictions and extensions of System F and other related systems, and lower-bound complexity results for System F have been achieved, but they have remained "embarrassing open problems" 3 for System F itself. We first prove that type checking in System F is undecidable by a reduction from semi-unification. We then prove typability in System F is undecidable by a reduction from type checking. Since the reverse reduction is already known, this implies the two problems are equivalent. The second reduction uses a novel method of constructing-terms such that in all type derivations, specific bound variables must always be assigned a specific type. Using this technique, we can require that specif subterms must be typable using a specific, fixed type assignment in order for the entire term to be typable at all. Any desired type assignment maybe simulated. We develop this method, which we call \constants for free", for both the K and I calculi.

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