Factor Varieties and Symbolic Computation

We propose an algebraization of classical and non-classical logics, based on factor varieties and decomposition operators. In particular, we provide a new method for determining whether a propositional formula is a tautology or a contradiction. This method can be autom-atized by defining a term rewriting system that enjoys confluence and strong normalization. This also suggests an original notion of logical gate and circuit, where propositional variables becomes logical gates and logical operations are implemented by substitution. Concerning formulas with quantifiers, we present a simple algorithm based on factor varieties for reducing first-order classical logic to equational logic. We achieve a completeness result for first-order classical logic without requiring any additional structure

One-Variable Fragments of First-Order Many-Valued Logics

In this thesis we study one-variable fragments of first-order logics. Such a one-variable fragment consists of those first-order formulas that contain only unary predicates and a single variable. These fragments can be viewed from a modal perspective by replacing the universal and existential quantifier with a box and diamond modality, respectively, and the unary predicates with corresponding propositional variables. Under this correspondence, the one-variable fragment of first-order classical logic famously corresponds to the modal logic S5. This thesis explores some such correspondences between first-order and modal logics. Firstly, we study first-order intuitionistic logics based on linear intuitionistic Kripke frames. We show that their one-variable fragments correspond to particular modal Gödel logics, defined over many-valued S5-Kripke frames. For a large class of these logics, we prove the validity problem to be decidable, even co-NP-complete. Secondly, we investigate the one-variable fragment of first-order Abelian logic, i.e., the first-order logic based on the ordered additive group of the reals. We provide two completeness results with respect to Hilbert-style axiomatizations: one for the one-variable fragment, and one for the one-variable fragment that does not contain any lattice connectives. Both these fragments are proved to be decidable. Finally, we launch a much broader algebraic investigation into one-variable fragments. We turn to the setting of first-order substructural logics (with the rule of exchange). Inspired by work on, among others, monadic Boolean algebras and monadic Heyting algebras, we define monadic commutative pointed residuated lattices as a first (algebraic) investigation into one-variable fragments of this large class of first-order logics. We prove a number of properties for these newly defined algebras, including a characterization in terms of relatively complete subalgebras as well as a characterization of their congruences

Algebraic specification : syntax, semantics, structure

Algebraic specification is the technique of using algebras to model properties of a system and using axioms to characterize such algebras. Algebraic specification comprises two aspects: the underlying logic used in the axioms and algebras, and the use of a small, general set of operators to build specifications in a structured manner. We describe these two aspects using the unifying notion of institutions. An institution is an abstraction of a logical system, describing the vocabulary, the kinds of axioms, the kinds of algebras, and the relation between them. Using institutions, one can define general structuring operators which are independent of the underlying logic. In this paper, we survey the different kind of logics, syntax, semantics, and structuring operators that have been used in algebraic specification

Interacting Hopf Algebras: the theory of linear systems

Scientists in diverse fields use diagrammatic formalisms to reason about various kinds of networks, or compound systems. Examples include electrical circuits, signal flow graphs, Penrose and Feynman diagrams, Bayesian networks, Petri nets, Kahn process networks, proof nets, UML specifications, amongst many others. Graphical languages provide a convenient abstraction of some underlying mathematical formalism, which gives meaning to diagrams. For instance, signal flow graphs, foundational structures in control theory, are traditionally translated into systems of linear equations. This is typical: diagrammatic languages are used as an interface for more traditional mathematics, but rarely studied per se. Recent trends in computer science analyse diagrams as first-class objects using formal methods from programming language semantics. In many such approaches, diagrams are generated as the arrows of a PROP — a special kind of monoidal category — by a two-dimensional syntax and equations. The domain of interpretation of diagrams is also formalised as a PROP and the (compositional) semantics is expressed as a functor preserving the PROP structure. The first main contribution of this thesis is the characterisation of SVk, the PROP of linear subspaces over a field k. This is an important domain of interpretation for diagrams appearing in diverse research areas, like the signal flow graphs mentioned above. We present by generators and equations the PROP IH of string diagrams whose free model is SVk. The name IH stands for interacting Hopf algebras: indeed, the equations of IH arise by distributive laws between Hopf algebras, which we obtain using Lack’s technique for composing PROPs. The significance of the result is two-fold. On the one hand, it offers a canonical string diagrammatic syntax for linear algebra: linear maps, kernels, subspaces and the standard linear algebraic transformations are all faithfully represented in the graphical language. On the other hand, the equations of IH describe familiar algebraic structures — Hopf algebras and Frobenius algebras — which are at the heart of graphical formalisms as seemingly diverse as quantum circuits, signal flow graphs, simple electrical circuits and Petri nets. Our characterisation enlightens the provenance of these axioms and reveals their linear algebraic nature. Our second main contribution is an application of IH to the semantics of signal processing circuits. We develop a formal theory of signal flow graphs, featuring a string diagrammatic syntax for circuits, a structural operational semantics and a denotational semantics. We prove soundness and completeness of the equations of IH for denotational equivalence. Also, we study the full abstraction question: it turns out that the purely operational picture is too concrete — two graphs that are denotationally equal may exhibit different operational behaviour. We classify the ways in which this can occur and show that any graph can be realised — rewritten, using the equations of IH, into an executable form where the operational behaviour and the denotation coincide. This realisability theorem — which is the culmination of our developments — suggests a reflection about the role of causality in the semantics of signal flow graphs and, more generally, of computing devices