arXiv subjects

Sergey Goncharov

Publications and source records attributed to Sergey Goncharov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Weak Similarity in Higher-Order Mathematical Operational Semantics

Higher-order abstract GSOS is a recent extension of Turi and Plotkin's framework of Mathematical Operational Semantics to higher-order languages. The fundamental well-behavedness property of all specifications within the framework is that coalgebraic strong (bi)similarity on their operational model is a congruence. In the present work, we establish a corresponding congruence theorem for weak similarity, which is shown to instantiate to well-known concepts such as Abramsky's applicative similarity for the lambda-calculus. On the way, we develop several techniques of independent interest at the level of abstract categories, including relation liftings of mixed-variance bifunctors and higher-order GSOS laws, as well as Howe's method.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2023

Shades of Iteration: from Elgot to Kleene

Notions of iteration range from the arguably most general Elgot iteration to a very specific Kleene iteration. The fundamental nature of Elgot iteration has been extensively explored by Bloom and Esik in the form of iteration theories, while Kleene iteration became extremely popular as an integral part of (untyped) formalisms, such as automata theory, regular expressions and Kleene algebra. Here, we establish a formal connection between Elgot iteration and Kleene iteration in the form of Elgot monads and Kleene monads, respectively. We also introduce a novel class of while-monads, which like Kleene monads admit a relatively simple description in algebraic terms. Like Elgot monads, while-monads cover a large variety of models that meaningfully support while-loops, but may fail the Kleene algebra laws, or even fail to support a Kleen iteration operator altogether.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2023

Kantorovich Functors and Characteristic Logics for Behavioural Distances

Behavioural distances measure the deviation between states in quantitative systems, such as probabilistic or weighted systems. There is growing interest in generic approaches to behavioural distances. In particular, coalgebraic methods capture variations in the system type (nondeterministic, probabilistic, game-based etc.), and the notion of quantale abstracts over the actual values distances take, thus covering, e.g., two-valued equivalences, (pseudo-)metrics, and probabilistic (pseudo-)metrics. Coalgebraic behavioural distances have been based either on liftings of SET-functors to categories of metric spaces, or on lax extensions of SET-functors to categories of quantitative relations. Every lax extension induces a functor lifting but not every lifting comes from a lax extension. It was shown recently that every lax extension is Kantorovich, i.e. induced by a suitable choice of monotone predicate liftings, implying via a quantitative coalgebraic Hennessy-Milner theorem that behavioural distances induced by lax extensions can be characterized by quantitative modal logics. Here, we essentially show the same in the more general setting of behavioural distances induced by functor liftings. In particular, we show that every functor lifting, and indeed every functor on (quantale-valued) metric spaces, that preserves isometries is Kantorovich, so that the induced behavioural distance (on systems of suitably restricted branching degree) can be characterized by a quantitative modal logic.

math.CT↗

arXiv2022

Quantitative Hennessy-Milner Theorems via Notions of Density

The classical Hennessy-Milner theorem is an important tool in the analysis of concurrent processes; it guarantees that any two non-bisimilar states in finitely branching labelled transition systems can be distinguished by a modal formula. Numerous variants of this theorem have since been established for a wide range of logics and system types, including quantitative versions where lower bounds on behavioural distance (e.g.~in weighted, metric, or probabilistic transition systems) are witnessed by quantitative modal formulas. Both the qualitative and the quantitative versions have been accommodated within the framework of coalgebraic logic, with distances taking values in quantales, subject to certain restrictions, such as being so-called value quantales. While previous quantitative coalgebraic Hennessy-Milner theorems apply only to liftings of set functors to (pseudo-)metric spaces, in the present work we provide a quantitative coalgebraic Hennessy-Milner theorem that applies more widely to functors native to metric spaces; notably, we thus cover, for the first time, the well-known Hennessy-Milner theorem for continuous probabilistic transition systems, where transitions are given by Borel measures on metric spaces, as an instance. In the process, we also relax the restrictions imposed on the quantale, and additionally parametrize the technical account over notions of closure and, hence, density, providing associated variants of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem; this allows us to cover, for instance, behavioural ultrametrics.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2022

Stateful Structural Operational Semantics

Compositionality of denotational semantics is an important concern in programming semantics. Mathematical operational semantics in the sense of Turi and Plotkin guarantees compositionality, but seen from the point of view of stateful computation it applies only to very fine-grained equivalences that essentially assume unrestricted interference by the environment between any two statements. We introduce the more restrictive stateful SOS rule format for stateful languages. We show that compositionality of two more coarse-grained semantics, respectively given by assuming read-only interference or no interference between steps, remains an undecidable property even for stateful SOS. However, further restricting the rule format in a manner inspired by the cool GSOS formats of Bloom and van Glabbeek, we obtain the streamlined and cool stateful SOS formats, which respectively guarantee compositionality of the two more abstract equivalences.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

Uniform Elgot Iteration in Foundations

Category theory is famous for its innovative way of thinking of concepts by their descriptions, in particular by establishing universal properties. Concepts that can be characterized in a universal way receive a certain quality seal, which makes them easily transferable across application domains. The notion of partiality is however notoriously difficult to characterize in this way, although the importance of it is certain, especially for computer science where entire research areas, such as synthetic and axiomatic domain theory revolve around notions of partiality. More recently, this issue resurfaced in the context of (constructive) intensional type theory. Here, we provide a generic categorical iteration-based notion of partiality, which is arguably the most basic one. We show that the emerging free structures, which we dub uniform-iteration algebras enjoy various desirable properties, in particular, yield an equational lifting monad. We then study the impact of classicality assumptions and choice principles on this monad, in particular, we establish a suitable categorial formulation of the axiom of countable choice entailing that the monad is an Elgot monad.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

A Metalanguage for Guarded Iteration

Notions of guardedness serve to delineate admissible recursive definitions in various settings in a compositional manner. In recent work, we have introduced an axiomatic notion of guardedness in symmetric monoidal categories, which serves as a unifying framework for various examples from program semantics, process algebra, and beyond. In the present paper, we propose a generic metalanguage for guarded iteration based on combining this notion with the fine-grain call-by-value paradigm, which we intend as a unifying programming language for guarded and unguarded iteration in the presence of computational effects. We give a generic (categorical) semantics of this language over a suitable class of strong monads supporting guarded iteration, and show it to be in touch with the standard operational behaviour of iteration by giving a concrete big-step operational semantics for a certain specific instance of the metalanguage and establishing soundness and (computational) adequacy for this case.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2020

Implementing Hybrid Semantics: From Functional to Imperative

Hybrid programs combine digital control with differential equations, and naturally appear in a wide range of application domains, from biology and control theory to real-time software engineering. The entanglement of discrete and continuous behaviour inherent to such programs goes beyond the established computer science foundations, producing challenges related to e.g. infinite iteration and combination of hybrid behaviour with other effects. A systematic treatment of hybridness as a dedicated computational effect has emerged recently. In particular, a generic idealized functional language HybCore with a sound and adequate operational semantics has been proposed. The latter semantics however did not provide hints to implementing HybCore as a runnable language, suitable for hybrid system simulation (e.g. the semantics features rules with uncountably many premises). We introduce an imperative counterpart of HybCore, whose semantics is simpler and runnable, and yet intimately related with the semantics of HybCore at the level of hybrid monads. We then establish a corresponding soundness and adequacy theorem. To attest that the resulting semantics can serve as a firm basis for the implementation of typical tools of programming oriented to the hybrid domain, we present a web-based prototype implementation to evaluate and inspect hybrid programs, in the spirit of GHCi for Haskell and UTop for OCaml. The major asset of our implementation is that it formally follows the operational semantic rules.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2020

Towards a Uniform Theory of Effectful State Machines

Using recent developments in coalgebraic and monad-based semantics, we present a uniform study of various notions of machines, e.g. finite state machines, multi-stack machines, Turing machines, valence automata, and weighted automata. They are instances of Jacobs' notion of a T-automaton, where T is a monad. We show that the generic language semantics for T-automata correctly instantiates the usual language semantics for a number of known classes of machines/languages, including regular, context-free, recursively-enumerable and various subclasses of context free languages (e.g. deterministic and real-time ones). Moreover, our approach provides new generic techniques for studying the expressivity power of various machine-based models.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2020

Local Local Reasoning: A BI-Hyperdoctrine for Full Ground Store

Modelling and reasoning about dynamic memory allocation is one of the well-established strands of theoretical computer science, which is particularly well-known as a source of notorious challenges in semantics, reasoning, and proof theory. We capitalize on recent progress on categorical semantics of full ground store, in terms of a full ground store monad, to build a corresponding semantics of a higher order logic over the corresponding programs. Our main result is a construction of an (intuitionistic) BI-hyperdoctrine, which is arguably the semantic core of higher order logic over local store. Although we have made an extensive use of the existing generic tools, certain principled changes had to be made to enable the desired construction: while the original monad works over total heaps (to disable dangling pointers), our version involves partial heaps (heaplets) to enable compositional reasoning using separating conjunction. Another remarkable feature of our construction is that, in contrast to the existing generic approaches, our BI-algebra does not directly stem from an internal categorical partial commutative monoid.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2020

The Expressiveness of Looping Terms in the Semantic Programming

We consider the language of $Δ_0$-formulas with list terms interpreted over hereditarily finite list superstructures. We study the complexity of reasoning in extensions of the language of $Δ_0$-formulas with non-standard list terms, which represent bounded list search, bounded iteration, and bounded recursion. We prove a number of results on the complexity of model checking and satisfiability for these formulas. In particular, we show that the set of $Δ_0$-formulas with bounded recursive terms true in a given list superstructure $HW(\mathcal{M})$ is non-elementary (it contains the class kEXPTIME, for all $k\geqslant 1$). For $Δ_0$-formulas with restrictions on the usage of iterative and recursive terms, we show lower complexity.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2019

An Adequate While-Language for Hybrid Computation

Hybrid computation combines discrete and continuous dynamics in the form of an entangled mixture inherently present both in various natural phenomena, and in applications ranging from control theory to microbiology. The emergent behaviours bear signs of both computational and physical processes, and thus present difficulties not only for analysis, but also for describing them adequately in a structural, well-founded way. Here, we introduce a language for hybrid computation, inspired by the fine-grain call-by-value paradigm, and equip it with a denotational and computationally adequate denotational semantics. Our denotational semantics crucially relies on a hybrid monad supporting an (Elgot) iteration operator, we developed elsewhere. As an intermediate step we introduce a more lightweight duration semantics furnished with analogous results and drawing on a new duration monad that we introduce as a lightweight counterpart to the hybrid monad.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2019

Guarded and Unguarded Iteration for Generalized Processes

Models of iterated computation, such as (completely) iterative monads, often depend on a notion of guardedness, which guarantees unique solvability of recursive equations and requires roughly that recursive calls happen only under certain guarding operations. On the other hand, many models of iteration do admit unguarded iteration. Solutions are then no longer unique, and in general not even determined as least or greatest fixpoints, being instead governed by quasi-equational axioms. Monads that support unguarded iteration in this sense are called (complete) Elgot monads. Here, we propose to equip (Kleisli categories of) monads with an abstract notion of guardedness and then require solvability of abstractly guarded recursive equations; examples of such abstractly guarded pre-iterative monads include both iterative monads and Elgot monads, the latter by deeming any recursive definition to be abstractly guarded. Our main result is then that Elgot monads are precisely the iteration-congruent retracts of abstractly guarded iterative monads, the latter being defined as admitting unique solutions of abstractly guarded recursive equations; in other words, models of unguarded iteration come about by quotienting models of guarded iteration.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2019

A Semantics for Hybrid Iteration

The recently introduced notions of guarded traced (monoidal) category and guarded (pre-)iterative monad aim at unifying different instances of partial iteration whilst keeping in touch with the established theory of total iteration and preserving its merits. In this paper we use these notions and the corresponding stock of results to examine different types of iteration for hybrid computations. As a starting point we use an available notion of hybrid monad restricted to the category of sets, and modify it in order to obtain a suitable notion of guarded iteration with guardedness interpreted as progressiveness in time - we motivate this modification by our intention to capture Zeno behaviour in an arguably general and feasible way. We illustrate our results with a simple programming language for hybrid computations and interpret it over the developed semantic foundations.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2018

Unguarded Recursion on Coinductive Resumptions

We study a model of side-effecting processes obtained by starting from a monad modelling base effects and adjoining free operations using a cofree coalgebra construction; one thus arrives at what one may think of as types of non-wellfounded side-effecting trees, generalizing the infinite resumption monad. Correspondingly, the arising monad transformer has been termed the coinductive generalized resumption transformer. Monads of this kind have received some attention in the recent literature; in particular, it has been shown that they admit guarded iteration. Here, we show that they also admit unguarded iteration, i.e. form complete Elgot monads, provided that the underlying base effect supports unguarded iteration. Moreover, we provide a universal characterization of the coinductive resumption monad transformer in terms of coproducts of complete Elgot monads.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2018

Guarded Traced Categories

Notions of guardedness serve to delineate the admissibility of cycles, e.g. in recursion, corecursion, iteration, or tracing. We introduce an abstract notion of guardedness structure on a symmetric monoidal category, along with a corresponding notion of guarded traces, which are defined only if the cycles they induce are guarded. We relate structural guardedness, determined by propagating guardedness along the operations of the category, to geometric guardedness phrased in terms of a diagrammatic language. In our setup, the Cartesian case (recursion) and the co-Cartesian case (iteration) become completely dual, and we show that in these cases, guarded tracedness is equivalent to presence of a guarded Conway operator, in analogy to an observation on total traces by Hasegawa and Hyland. Moreover, we relate guarded traces to unguarded categorical uniform fixpoint operators in the style of Simpson and Plotkin. Finally, we show that partial traces based on Hilbert-Schmidt operators in the category of Hilbert spaces are an instance of guarded traces.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2016

Hanf Number for Scott Sentences of Computable Structures

The Hanf number for a set $S$ of sentences in $L_{ω_1,ω}$ (or some other logic) is the least infinite cardinal $κ$ such that for all $φ\in S$, if $φ$ has models in all infinite cardinalities less than $κ$, then it has models of all infinite cardinalities. S-D. Friedman asked what is the Hanf number for Scott sentences of computable structures. We show that the value is $\beth_{ω_1^{CK}}$. The same argument proves that $\beth_{ω_1^{CK}}$ is the Hanf number for Scott sentences of hyperarithmetical structures.

math.LO↗

arXiv2016

Complete Elgot Monads and Coalgebraic Resumptions

Monads are extensively used nowadays to abstractly model a wide range of computational effects such as nondeterminism, statefulness, and exceptions. It turns out that equipping a monad with a (uniform) iteration operator satisfying a set of natural axioms allows for modelling iterative computations just as abstractly. The emerging monads are called complete Elgot monads. It has been shown recently that extending complete Elgot monads with free effects (e.g. operations of sending/receiving messages over channels) canonically leads to generalized coalgebraic resumption monads, previously used as semantic domains for non-wellfounded guarded processes. In this paper, we continue the study of the relationship between abstract complete Elgot monads and those that capture coalgebraic resumptions, by comparing the corresponding categories of (Eilenberg-Moore) algebras. To this end we first provide a characterization of the latter category; even more generally, we formulate this characterization in terms of Uustalu's parametrized monads. This is further used for establishing a characterization of complete Elgot monads as precisely those monads whose algebras are coherently equipped with the structure of algebras of coalgebraic resumption monads.

cs.LO↗