Nested Term Graphs (Work In Progress)

We report on work in progress on 'nested term graphs' for formalizing higher-order terms (e.g. finite or infinite lambda-terms), including those expressing recursion (e.g. terms in the lambda-calculus with letrec). The idea is to represent the nested scope structure of a higher-order term by a nested structure of term graphs. Based on a signature that is partitioned into atomic and nested function symbols, we define nested term graphs both in a functional representation, as tree-like recursive graph specifications that associate nested symbols with usual term graphs, and in a structural representation, as enriched term graph structures. These definitions induce corresponding notions of bisimulation between nested term graphs. Our main result states that nested term graphs can be implemented faithfully by first-order term graphs. keywords: higher-order term graphs, context-free grammars, cyclic lambda-terms, higher-order rewrite systemsComment: In Proceedings TERMGRAPH 2014, arXiv:1505.0681

Reactive Systems over Cospans

The theory of reactive systems, introduced by Leifer and Milner and previously extended by the authors, allows the derivation of well-behaved labelled transition systems (LTS) for semantic models with an underlying reduction semantics. The derivation procedure requires the presence of certain colimits (or, more usually and generally, bicolimits) which need to be constructed separately within each model. In this paper, we offer a general construction of such bicolimits in a class of bicategories of cospans. The construction sheds light on as well as extends Ehrig and Konig’s rewriting via borrowed contexts and opens the way to a unified treatment of several applications

Checking bisimilarity for attributed graph transformation

Borrowed context graph transformation is a technique developed by Ehrig and Koenig to define bisimilarity congruences from reduction semantics defined by graph transformation. This means that, for instance, this technique can be used for defining bisimilarity congruences for process calculi whose operational semantics can be defined by graph transformation. Moreover, given a set of graph transformation rules, the technique can be used for checking bisimilarity of two given graphs. Unfortunately, we can not use this ideas to check if attributed graphs are bisimilar, i.e. graphs whose nodes or edges are labelled with values from some given data algebra and where graph transformation involves computation on that algebra. The problem is that, in the case of attributed graphs, borrowed context transformation may be infinitely branching. In this paper, based on borrowed context transformation of what we call symbolic graphs, we present a sound and relatively complete inference system for checking bisimilarity of attributed graphs. In particular, this means that, if using our inference system we are able to prove that two graphs are bisimilar then they are indeed bisimilar. Conversely, two graphs are not bisimilar if and only if we can find a proof saying so, provided that we are able to prove some formulas over the given data algebra. Moreover, since the proof system is complex to use, we also present a tableau method based on the inference system that is also sound and relatively complete.Postprint (published version

Equational term graph rewriting

We present an equational framework for term graph rewriting with cycles. The usual notion of homomorphism is phrased in terms of the notion of bisimulation, which is well-known in process algebra and concurrency theory. Specifically, a homomorphism is a functional bisimulation. We prove that the bisimilarity class of a term graph, partially ordered by functional bisimulation, is a complete lattice. It is shown how Equational Logic induces a notion of copying and substitution on term graphs, or systems of recursion equations, and also suggests the introduction of hidden or nameless nodes in a term graph. Hidden nodes can be used only once. The general framework of term graphs with copying is compared with the more restricted copying facilities embodied in the $mu$-rule, and translations are given between term graphs and $mu$-expressions. Using these, a proo

A Decidable Characterization of a Graphical Pi-calculus with Iterators

This paper presents the Pi-graphs, a visual paradigm for the modelling and verification of mobile systems. The language is a graphical variant of the Pi-calculus with iterators to express non-terminating behaviors. The operational semantics of Pi-graphs use ground notions of labelled transition and bisimulation, which means standard verification techniques can be applied. We show that bisimilarity is decidable for the proposed semantics, a result obtained thanks to an original notion of causal clock as well as the automatic garbage collection of unused names.Comment: In Proceedings INFINITY 2010, arXiv:1010.611

Term Graph Representations for Cyclic Lambda-Terms

We study various representations for cyclic lambda-terms as higher-order or as first-order term graphs. We focus on the relation between `lambda-higher-order term graphs' (lambda-ho-term-graphs), which are first-order term graphs endowed with a well-behaved scope function, and their representations as `lambda-term-graphs', which are plain first-order term graphs with scope-delimiter vertices that meet certain scoping requirements. Specifically we tackle the question: Which class of first-order term graphs admits a faithful embedding of lambda-ho-term-graphs in the sense that: (i) the homomorphism-based sharing-order on lambda-ho-term-graphs is preserved and reflected, and (ii) the image of the embedding corresponds closely to a natural class (of lambda-term-graphs) that is closed under homomorphism? We systematically examine whether a number of classes of lambda-term-graphs have this property, and we find a particular class of lambda-term-graphs that satisfies this criterion. Term graphs of this class are built from application, abstraction, variable, and scope-delimiter vertices, and have the characteristic feature that the latter two kinds of vertices have back-links to the corresponding abstraction. This result puts a handle on the concept of subterm sharing for higher-order term graphs, both theoretically and algorithmically: We obtain an easily implementable method for obtaining the maximally shared form of lambda-ho-term-graphs. Also, we open up the possibility to pull back properties from first-order term graphs to lambda-ho-term-graphs. In fact we prove this for the property of the sharing-order successors of a given term graph to be a complete lattice with respect to the sharing order. This report extends the paper with the same title (http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.6338v1) in the proceedings of the workshop TERMGRAPH 2013.Comment: 35 pages. report extending proceedings article on arXiv:1302.6338 (changes with respect to version v2: added section 8, modified Proposition 2.4, added Remark 2.5, added Corollary 7.11, modified figures in the conclusion

Cyclic Datatypes modulo Bisimulation based on Second-Order Algebraic Theories

Cyclic data structures, such as cyclic lists, in functional programming are tricky to handle because of their cyclicity. This paper presents an investigation of categorical, algebraic, and computational foundations of cyclic datatypes. Our framework of cyclic datatypes is based on second-order algebraic theories of Fiore et al., which give a uniform setting for syntax, types, and computation rules for describing and reasoning about cyclic datatypes. We extract the "fold" computation rules from the categorical semantics based on iteration categories of Bloom and Esik. Thereby, the rules are correct by construction. We prove strong normalisation using the General Schema criterion for second-order computation rules. Rather than the fixed point law, we particularly choose Bekic law for computation, which is a key to obtaining strong normalisation. We also prove the property of "Church-Rosser modulo bisimulation" for the computation rules. Combining these results, we have a remarkable decidability result of the equational theory of cyclic data and fold.Comment: 38 page