We consider the following decision problem: given two simply typed $\lambda$-terms, are they $\beta$-convertible? Equivalently, do they have the same normal form? It is famously non-elementary, but the precise complexity - namely TOWER-complete - is lesser known. One goal of this short paper is to popularize this fact. Our original contribution is to show that the problem stays TOWER-complete when the two input terms belong to Blum and Ong's safe $\lambda$-calculus, a fragment of the simply typed $\lambda$-calculus arising from the study of higher-order recursion schemes. Previously, the best known lower bound for this safe $\beta$-convertibility problem was PSPACE-hardness. Our proof proceeds by reduction from the star-free expression equivalence problem, taking inspiration from the author's work with Pradic on "implicit automata in typed $\lambda$-calculi". These results also hold for $\beta\eta$-convertibility.

@article{paperbot2728,
  title = {Simply typed convertibility is TOWER-complete even for safe lambda-terms},
  author = {Lê Thành Dũng Nguyên},
  journal = {Logical Methods in Computer Science},
  volume = {Volume 20, Issue 3},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.46298/lmcs-20(3:21)2024}
}