Proper Functors and Fixed Points for Finite Behaviour

The rational fixed point of a set functor is well-known to capture the behaviour of finite coalgebras. In this paper we consider functors on algebraic categories. For them the rational fixed point may no longer be fully abstract, i.e. a subcoalgebra of the final coalgebra. Inspired by \'Esik and Maletti's notion of a proper semiring, we introduce the notion of a proper functor. We show that for proper functors the rational fixed point is determined as the colimit of all coalgebras with a free finitely generated algebra as carrier and it is a subcoalgebra of the final coalgebra. Moreover, we prove that a functor is proper if and only if that colimit is a subcoalgebra of the final coalgebra. These results serve as technical tools for soundness and completeness proofs for coalgebraic regular expression calculi, e.g. for weighted automata

On Well-Founded and Recursive Coalgebras

This paper studies fundamental questions concerning category-theoretic models of induction and recursion. We are concerned with the relationship between well-founded and recursive coalgebras for an endofunctor. For monomorphism preserving endofunctors on complete and well-powered categories every coalgebra has a well-founded part, and we provide a new, shorter proof that this is the coreflection in the category of all well-founded coalgebras. We present a new more general proof of Taylor's General Recursion Theorem that every well-founded coalgebra is recursive, and we study under which hypothesis the converse holds. In addition, we present a new equivalent characterization of well-foundedness: a coalgebra is well-founded iff it admits a coalgebra-to-algebra morphism to the initial algebra