Injectivity of Composite Functions

The problem of deciding injectivity of functions is addressed. The functions under consideration are compositions of more basic functions for which information about injectivity properties is available. We present an algorithm which will often be able to prove that such a composite function is injective. This algorithm constructs a set of propositional Horn clause axioms from the function specification and the available information about the basic functions. The existence of a proof of injectivity is then reduced to the problem of propositional Horn clause deduction. Dowling and Gallier have designed several very fast algorithms for this problem, the efficiency of which our algorithm inherits. The proof of correctness of the algorithm amounts to showing soundness and completeness of the generated Horn clause axioms.