On Probabilistic Term Rewriting

We study the termination problem for probabilistic term rewrite systems. We prove that the interpretation method is sound and complete for a strengthening of positive almost sure termination, when abstract reduction systems and term rewrite systems are considered. Two instances of the interpretation method-polynomial and matrix interpretations-are analyzed and shown to capture interesting and non-trivial examples when automated. We capture probabilistic computation in a novel way by means of multidistribution reduction sequences, thus accounting for both the nondeterminism in the choice of the redex and the probabilism intrinsic in firing each rule.