Universe polymorphism: the inference of universes and their constraints When making a universe polymorphic definition in Coq, universes and their constraints are automatically inferred. Are they somewhat the most general ones (in a sense similar to the principal type property in ML)? Or are they just the result of arbitrary heuristics? Or something in between?
It's complicated because universe constraints are simplified during inference (in order to avoid an explosion of constraints). Have a look at:


Matthieu Sozeau and Nicolas Tabareau: Universe Polymorphism in Coq, Interactive Theorem Proving - 5th International Conference, ITP 2014
Beta Ziliani &amp; Matthieu Sozeau: A Unification Algorithm for Coq featuring Universe Polymorphism and Overloading, ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming 2015.