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Volume 16, Issue 3
2020
1. Playing with Repetitions in Data Words Using Energy Games
We introduce two-player games which build words over infinite alphabets, and we study the problem of checking the existence of winning strategies. These games are played by two players, who take turns in choosing valuations for variables ranging over an infinite data domain, thus generating multi-attributed data words. The winner of the game is specified by formulas in the Logic of Repeating Values, which can reason about repetitions of data values in infinite data words. We prove that it is undecidable to check if one of the players has a winning strategy, even in very restrictive settings. However, we prove that if one of the players is restricted to choose valuations ranging over the Boolean domain, the games are effectively equivalent to single-sided games on vector addition systems with states (in which one of the players can change control states but cannot change counter values), known to be decidable and effectively equivalent to energy games. Previous works have shown that the satisfiability problem for various variants of the logic of repeating values is equivalent to the reachability and coverability problems in vector addition systems. Our results raise this connection to the level of games, augmenting further the associations between logics on data words and counter systems.
2. Rule Algebras for Adhesive Categories
We demonstrate that the most well-known approach to rewriting graphical structures, the Double-Pushout (DPO) approach, possesses a notion of sequential compositions of rules along an overlap that is associative in a natural sense. Notably, our results hold in the general setting of $\mathcal{M}$-adhesive categories. This observation complements the classical Concurrency Theorem of DPO rewriting. We then proceed to define rule algebras in both settings, where the most general categories permissible are the finitary (or finitary restrictions of) $\mathcal{M}$-adhesive categories with $\mathcal{M}$-effective unions. If in addition a given such category possess an $\mathcal{M}$-initial object, the resulting rule algebra is unital (in addition to being associative). We demonstrate that in this setting a canonical representation of the rule algebras is obtainable, which opens the possibility of applying the concept to define and compute the evolution of statistical moments of observables in stochastic DPO rewriting systems.
3. Combinatorial Conversion and Moment Bisimulation for Stochastic Rewriting Systems
We develop a novel method to analyze the dynamics of stochastic rewriting systems evolving over finitary adhesive, extensive categories. Our formalism is based on the so-called rule algebra framework and exhibits an intimate relationship between the combinatorics of the rewriting rules (as encoded in the rule algebra) and the dynamics which these rules generate on observables (as encoded in the stochastic mechanics formalism). We introduce the concept of combinatorial conversion, whereby under certain technical conditions the evolution equation for (the exponential generating function of) the statistical moments of observables can be expressed as the action of certain differential operators on formal power series. This permits us to formulate the novel concept of moment-bisimulation, whereby two dynamical systems are compared in terms of their evolution of sets of observables that are in bijection. In particular, we exhibit non-trivial examples of graphical rewriting systems that are moment-bisimilar to certain discrete rewriting systems (such as branching processes or the larger class of stochastic chemical reaction systems). Our results point towards applications of a vast number of existing well-established exact and approximate analysis techniques developed for chemical reaction systems to the far richer class of general stochastic rewriting systems.
4. Directed Homotopy in Non-Positively Curved Spaces
A semantics of concurrent programs can be given using precubical sets, in order to study (higher) commutations between the actions, thus encoding the "geometry" of the space of possible executions of the program. Here, we study the particular case of programs using only mutexes, which are the most widely used synchronization primitive. We show that in this case, the resulting programs have non-positive curvature, a notion that we introduce and study here for precubical sets, and can be thought of as an algebraic analogue of the well-known one for metric spaces. Using this it, as well as categorical rewriting techniques, we are then able to show that directed and non-directed homotopy coincide for directed paths in these precubical sets. Finally, we study the geometric realization of precubical sets in metric spaces, to show that our conditions on precubical sets actually coincide with those for metric spaces. Since the category of metric spaces is not cocomplete, we are lead to work with generalized metric spaces and study some of their properties.
5. Interpolating Between Choices for the Approximate Intermediate Value Theorem
This paper proves the approximate intermediate value theorem, constructively and from notably weak hypotheses: from pointwise rather than uniform continuity, without assuming that reals are presented with rational approximants, and without using countable choice. The theorem is that if a pointwise continuous function has both a negative and a positive value, then it has values arbitrarily close to 0. The proof builds on the usual classical proof by bisection, which repeatedly selects the left or right half of an interval; the algorithm here selects an interval of half the size in a continuous way, interpolating between those two possibilities.
6. Revisiting Call-by-value Böhm trees in light of their Taylor expansion
The call-by-value lambda calculus can be endowed with permutation rules, arising from linear logic proof-nets, having the advantage of unblocking some redexes that otherwise get stuck during the reduction. We show that such an extension allows to define a satisfying notion of Böhm(-like) tree and a theory of program approximation in the call-by-value setting. We prove that all lambda terms having the same Böhm tree are observationally equivalent, and characterize those Böhm-like trees arising as actual Böhm trees of lambda terms. We also compare this approach with Ehrhard's theory of program approximation based on the Taylor expansion of lambda terms, translating each lambda term into a possibly infinite set of so-called resource terms. We provide sufficient and necessary conditions for a set of resource terms in order to be the Taylor expansion of a lambda term. Finally, we show that the normal form of the Taylor expansion of a lambda term can be computed by performing a normalized Taylor expansion of its Böhm tree. From this it follows that two lambda terms have the same Böhm tree if and only if the normal forms of their Taylor expansions coincide.
7. Fixed point combinators as fixed points of higher-order fixed point generators
Corrado Böhm once observed that if $Y$ is any fixed point combinator (fpc), then $Y(\lambda yx.x(yx))$ is again fpc. He thus discovered the first "fpc generating scheme" -- a generic way to build new fpcs from old. Continuing this idea, define an $\textit{fpc generator}$ to be any sequence of terms $G_1,\dots,G_n$ such that \[ Y \in FPC \Rightarrow Y G_1 \cdots G_n \in FPC \] In this contribution, we take first steps in studying the structure of (weak) fpc generators. We isolate several robust classes of such generators, by examining their elementary properties like injectivity and (weak) constancy. We provide sufficient conditions for existence of fixed points of a given generator $(G_1,\cdots,G_n)$: an fpc $Y$ such that $Y = Y G_1 \cdots G_n$. We conjecture that weak constancy is a necessary condition for existence of such (higher-order) fixed points. This statement generalizes Statman's conjecture on non-existence of "double fpcs": fixed points of the generator $(G) = (\lambda yx.x(yx))$ discovered by Böhm. Finally, we define and make a few observations about the monoid of (weak) fpc generators. This enables us to formulate new a conjecture about their structure.
8. Constructive Canonicity of Inductive Inequalities
We prove the canonicity of inductive inequalities in a constructive meta-theory, for classes of logics algebraically captured by varieties of normal and regular lattice expansions. This result encompasses Ghilardi-Meloni's and Suzuki's constructive canonicity results for Sahlqvist formulas and inequalities, and is based on an application of the tools of unified correspondence theory. Specifically, we provide an alternative interpretation of the language of the algorithm ALBA for lattice expansions: nominal and conominal variables are respectively interpreted as closed and open elements of canonical extensions of normal/regular lattice expansions, rather than as completely join-irreducible and meet-irreducible elements of perfect normal/regular lattice expansions. We show the correctness of ALBA with respect to this interpretation. From this fact, the constructive canonicity of the inequalities on which ALBA succeeds follows by an adaptation of the standard argument. The claimed result then follows as a consequence of the success of ALBA on inductive inequalities.
9. A limitation on the KPT interpolation
We prove a limitation on a variant of the KPT theorem proposed for propositional proof systems by Pich and Santhanam (2020), for all proof systems that prove the disjointness of two NP sets that are hard to distinguish.
10. Dual-Context Calculi for Modal Logic
We present natural deduction systems and associated modal lambda calculi for the necessity fragments of the normal modal logics K, T, K4, GL and S4. These systems are in the dual-context style: they feature two distinct zones of assumptions, one of which can be thought as modal, and the other as intuitionistic. We show that these calculi have their roots in in sequent calculi. We then investigate their metatheory, equip them with a confluent and strongly normalizing notion of reduction, and show that they coincide with the usual Hilbert systems up to provability. Finally, we investigate a categorical semantics which interprets the modality as a product-preserving functor.
11. On the Expressive Power of Higher-Order Pushdown Systems
We show that deterministic collapsible pushdown automata of second order can recognize a language that is not recognizable by any deterministic higher-order pushdown automaton (without collapse) of any order. This implies that there exists a tree generated by a second order collapsible pushdown system (equivalently, by a recursion scheme of second order) that is not generated by any deterministic higher-order pushdown system (without collapse) of any order (equivalently, by any safe recursion scheme of any order). As a side effect, we present a pumping lemma for deterministic higher-order pushdown automata, which potentially can be useful for other applications.
12. The Sierpinski Object in the Scott Realizability Topos
We study the Sierpinski object $\Sigma$ in the realizability topos based on Scott's graph model of the $\lambda$-calculus. Our starting observation is that the object of realizers in this topos is the exponential $\Sigma ^N$, where $N$ is the natural numbers object. We define order-discrete objects by orthogonality to $\Sigma$. We show that the order-discrete objects form a reflective subcategory of the topos, and that many fundamental objects in higher-type arithmetic are order-discrete. Building on work by Lietz, we give some new results regarding the internal logic of the topos. Then we consider $\Sigma$ as a dominance; we explicitly construct the lift functor and characterize $\Sigma$-subobjects. Contrary to our expectations the dominance $\Sigma$ is not closed under unions. In the last section we build a model for homotopy theory, where the order-discrete objects are exactly those objects which only have constant paths.
13. Compiling With Classical Connectives
The study of polarity in computation has revealed that an "ideal" programming language combines both call-by-value and call-by-name evaluation; the two calling conventions are each ideal for half the types in a programming language. But this binary choice leaves out call-by-need which is used in practice to implement lazy-by-default languages like Haskell. We show how the notion of polarity can be extended beyond the value/name dichotomy to include call-by-need by adding a mechanism for sharing which is enough to compile a Haskell-like functional language with user-defined types. The key to capturing sharing in this mixed-evaluation setting is to generalize the usual notion of polarity "shifts:" rather than just two shifts (between positive and negative) we have a family of four dual shifts. We expand on this idea of logical duality---"and" is dual to "or;" proof is dual to refutation---for the purpose of compiling a variety of types. Based on a general notion of data and codata, we show how classical connectives can be used to encode a wide range of built-in and user-defined types. In contrast with an intuitionistic logic corresponding to pure functional programming, these classical connectives bring more of the pleasant symmetries of classical logic to the computationally-relevant, constructive setting. In particular, an involutive pair of negations bridges the gulf between the wide-spread notions of parametric polymorphism and […]
14. Rooted Divergence-Preserving Branching Bisimilarity is a Congruence
We prove that rooted divergence-preserving branching bisimilarity is a congruence for the process specification language consisting of nil, action prefix, choice, and the recursion construct.
15. Gems of Corrado Böhm
The main scientific heritage of Corrado Böhm consists of ideas about computing, concerning concrete algorithms, as well as models of computability. The following will be presented. 1. A compiler that can compile itself. 2. Structured programming, eliminating the 'goto' statement. 3. Functional programming and an early implementation. 4. Separability in {\lambda}-calculus. 5. Compiling combinators without parsing. 6. Self-evaluation in {\lambda}-calculus.
16. Two-variable logics with some betweenness relations: Expressiveness, satisfiability and membership
We study two extensions of FO2[<], first-order logic interpreted in finite words, in which formulas are restricted to use only two variables. We adjoin to this language two-variable atomic formulas that say, "the letter $a$ appears between positions $x$ and $y$" and "the factor $u$ appears between positions $x$ and $y$". These are, in a sense, the simplest properties that are not expressible using only two variables. We present several logics, both first-order and temporal, that have the same expressive power, and find matching lower and upper bounds for the complexity of satisfiability for each of these formulations. We give effective conditions, in terms of the syntactic monoid of a regular language, for a property to be expressible in these logics. This algebraic analysis allows us to prove, among other things, that our new logics have strictly less expressive power than full first-order logic FO[<]. Our proofs required the development of novel techniques concerning factorizations of words.
17. A unifying framework for continuity and complexity in higher types
We set up a parametrised monadic translation for a class of call-by-value functional languages, and prove a corresponding soundness theorem. We then present a series of concrete instantiations of our translation, demonstrating that a number of fundamental notions concerning higher-order computation, including termination, continuity and complexity, can all be subsumed into our framework. Our main goal is to provide a unifying scheme which brings together several concepts which are often treated separately in the literature. However, as a by-product, we also obtain (i) a method for extracting moduli of continuity for closed functionals of type $(\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{N})\to\mathbb{N}$ definable in (extensions of) System T, and (ii) a characterisation of the time complexity of bar recursion.
18. On Resolving Non-determinism in Choreographies
Choreographies specify multiparty interactions via message passing. A realisation of a choreography is a composition of independent processes that behave as specified by the choreography. Existing relations of correctness/completeness between choreographies and realisations are based on models where choices are non-deterministic. Resolving non-deterministic choices into deterministic choices (e.g., conditional statements) is necessary to correctly characterise the relationship between choreographies and their implementations with concrete programming languages. We introduce a notion of realisability for choreographies - called whole-spectrum implementation - where choices are still non-deterministic in choreographies, but are deterministic in their implementations. Our notion of whole spectrum implementation rules out deterministic implementations of roles that, no matter which context they are placed in, will never follow one of the branches of a non-deterministic choice. We give a type discipline for checking whole-spectrum implementations. As a case study, we analyse the POP protocol under the lens of whole-spectrum implementation.
19. A symmetric protocol to establish service level agreements
We present a symmetrical protocol to repeatedly negotiate a desired service level between two parties, where the service levels are taken from some totally ordered finite domain. The agreed service level is selected from levels dynamically proposed by both parties and parties can only decrease the desired service level during a negotiation. The correctness of the protocol is stated using modal formulas and its behaviour is explained using behavioural reductions of the external behaviour modulo weak trace equivalence and divergence-preserving branching bisimulation. Our protocol originates from an industrial use case and it turned out to be remarkably tricky to design correctly.