Applications of Metric Coinduction

Metric coinduction is a form of coinduction that can be used to establish properties of objects constructed as a limit of finite approximations. One can prove a coinduction step showing that some property is preserved by one step of the approximation process, then automatically infer by the coinduction principle that the property holds of the limit object. This can often be used to avoid complicated analytic arguments involving limits and convergence, replacing them with simpler algebraic arguments. This paper examines the application of this principle in a variety of areas, including infinite streams, Markov chains, Markov decision processes, and non-well-founded sets. These results point to the usefulness of coinduction as a general proof technique

Generic Trace Semantics via Coinduction

Trace semantics has been defined for various kinds of state-based systems, notably with different forms of branching such as non-determinism vs. probability. In this paper we claim to identify one underlying mathematical structure behind these "trace semantics," namely coinduction in a Kleisli category. This claim is based on our technical result that, under a suitably order-enriched setting, a final coalgebra in a Kleisli category is given by an initial algebra in the category Sets. Formerly the theory of coalgebras has been employed mostly in Sets where coinduction yields a finer process semantics of bisimilarity. Therefore this paper extends the application field of coalgebras, providing a new instance of the principle "process semantics via coinduction."Comment: To appear in Logical Methods in Computer Science. 36 page

A new coinductive confluence proof for infinitary lambda calculus

We present a new and formal coinductive proof of confluence and normalisation of B\"ohm reduction in infinitary lambda calculus. The proof is simpler than previous proofs of this result. The technique of the proof is new, i.e., it is not merely a coinductive reformulation of any earlier proofs. We formalised the proof in the Coq proof assistant.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1501.0435

Coinductive Formal Reasoning in Exact Real Arithmetic

In this article we present a method for formally proving the correctness of the lazy algorithms for computing homographic and quadratic transformations -- of which field operations are special cases-- on a representation of real numbers by coinductive streams. The algorithms work on coinductive stream of M\"{o}bius maps and form the basis of the Edalat--Potts exact real arithmetic. We use the machinery of the Coq proof assistant for the coinductive types to present the formalisation. The formalised algorithms are only partially productive, i.e., they do not output provably infinite streams for all possible inputs. We show how to deal with this partiality in the presence of syntactic restrictions posed by the constructive type theory of Coq. Furthermore we show that the type theoretic techniques that we develop are compatible with the semantics of the algorithms as continuous maps on real numbers. The resulting Coq formalisation is available for public download.Comment: 40 page

From coinductive proofs to exact real arithmetic: theory and applications

Based on a new coinductive characterization of continuous functions we extract certified programs for exact real number computation from constructive proofs. The extracted programs construct and combine exact real number algorithms with respect to the binary signed digit representation of real numbers. The data type corresponding to the coinductive definition of continuous functions consists of finitely branching non-wellfounded trees describing when the algorithm writes and reads digits. We discuss several examples including the extraction of programs for polynomials up to degree two and the definite integral of continuous maps

Normalization by Evaluation in the Delay Monad: A Case Study for Coinduction via Copatterns and Sized Types

In this paper, we present an Agda formalization of a normalizer for simply-typed lambda terms. The normalizer consists of two coinductively defined functions in the delay monad: One is a standard evaluator of lambda terms to closures, the other a type-directed reifier from values to eta-long beta-normal forms. Their composition, normalization-by-evaluation, is shown to be a total function a posteriori, using a standard logical-relations argument. The successful formalization serves as a proof-of-concept for coinductive programming and reasoning using sized types and copatterns, a new and presently experimental feature of Agda.Comment: In Proceedings MSFP 2014, arXiv:1406.153