I am studying Haskell and I am learning what is an abstraction, substitution (beta equivalence), application, free and bound variables (alpha equivalence), but I have some doubts resolving these exercises, I don't know if my solutions are correct.
Make the following substitutions
1. (λ x → y x x) [x:= f z]
Sol. (\x -> y x x) =>α (\w -> y w w) =>α (\w -> x w w) =>β (\w -> f z w w)
2. ((λ x → y x x) x) [y:= x]
Sol. ((\x -> y x x)x) =>α (\w -> y w w)[y:= x] = (\w -> x w w)
3. ((λ x → y x) (λ y → y x) y) [x:= f y]
Sol. aproximation, i don't know how to do it: ((\x -> y x)(\y -> y x) y) =>β
(\x -> y x)y x)[x:= f y] =>β y x [x:= f y] = y f y
4. ((λ x → λ y → y x x) y) [y:= f z]
Sol aproximation, ((\x -> (\y -> (y x x))) y) =>β ((\y -> (y x x)) y) =>α ((\y -> (y x x)) f z)
Another doubt that I have is if can I run these expressions on this website? It is a Lambda Calculus Calculator but I do not know how to run these tests.
1. (λ x → y x x) [x:= f z]
Sol.(\x -> y x x) =>α (\w -> y w w) =>α (\w -> x w w) =>β (\w -> f z w w)
No, you can't rename y, it's free in (λ x → y x x). Only bound variables can be (consistently) α-renamed. But only free variables can be substituted, and there's no free x in that lambda term.
2. ((λ x → y x x) x) [y:= x]
Sol.((\x -> y x x)x) =>α (\w -> y w w)[y:= x] = (\w -> x w w)
Yes, substituting x for y would allow it to be captured by the λ x, so you indeed must α-rename the x in (λ x → y x x) first to some new unique name as you did, but you've dropped the application to the free x for some reason. You can't just omit parts of a term, so it's ((\w -> y w w) x)[y:= x]. Now perform the substitution. Note you're not asked to perform the β-reduction of the resulting term, just the substitution.
I'll leave the other two out. Just follow the rules carefully. It's easy if you rename all bound names to unique names first, even if the renaming is not strictly required, for instance
((λ x → y x) (λ y → y x) y) [x:= f y] -->
((λ w → y w) (λ z → z x) y) [x:= f y]
The "unique" part includes also the free variables used in the substitution terms, that might get captured after being substituted otherwise (i.e. without the renaming being performed first, in the terms in which they are being substituted). That's why we had to rename the bound y in the above term, -- because y appears free in the substitution term. We didn't have to rename the bound x but it made it easier that way.