Comonadic Notions of Computation

AbstractWe argue that symmetric (semi)monoidal comonads provide a means to structure context-dependent notions of computation such as notions of dataflow computation (computation on streams) and of tree relabelling as in attribute evaluation. We propose a generic semantics for extensions of simply typed lambda calculus with context-dependent operations analogous to the Moggi-style semantics for effectful languages based on strong monads. This continues the work in the early 90s by Brookes, Geva and Van Stone on the use of computational comonads in intensional semantics

Modalities, Cohesion, and Information Flow

It is informally understood that the purpose of modal type constructors in programming calculi is to control the flow of information between types. In order to lend rigorous support to this idea, we study the category of classified sets, a variant of a denotational semantics for information flow proposed by Abadi et al. We use classified sets to prove multiple noninterference theorems for modalities of a monadic and comonadic flavour. The common machinery behind our theorems stems from the the fact that classified sets are a (weak) model of Lawvere's theory of axiomatic cohesion. In the process, we show how cohesion can be used for reasoning about multi-modal settings. This leads to the conclusion that cohesion is a particularly useful setting for the study of both information flow, but also modalities in type theory and programming languages at large

Structure and Power: an emerging landscape

In this paper, we give an overview of some recent work on applying tools from category theory in finite model theory, descriptive complexity, constraint satisfaction, and combinatorics. The motivations for this work come from Computer Science, but there may also be something of interest for model theorists and other logicians. The basic setting involves studying the category of relational structures via a resource-indexed family of adjunctions with some process category - which unfolds relational structures into treelike forms, allowing natural resource parameters to be assigned to these unfoldings. One basic instance of this scheme allows us to recover, in a purely structural, syntax-free way: the Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse~game; the quantifier rank fragments of first-order logic; the equivalences on structures induced by (i) the quantifier rank fragments, (ii) the restriction of this fragment to the existential positive part, and (iii) the extension with counting quantifiers; and the combinatorial parameter of tree-depth (Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez). Another instance recovers the k-pebble game, the finite-variable fragments, the corresponding equivalences, and the combinatorial parameter of treewidth. Other instances cover modal, guarded and hybrid fragments, generalized quantifiers, and a wide range of combinatorial parameters. This whole scheme has been axiomatized in a very general setting, of arboreal categories and arboreal covers. Beyond this basic level, a landscape is beginning to emerge, in which structural features of the resource categories, adjunctions and comonads are reflected in degrees of logical and computational tractability of the corresponding languages. Examples include semantic characterisation and preservation theorems, and Lovasz-type results on counting homomorphisms.Comment: To appear in special issue for Trakhtenbrot centenary of Fundamenta Informaticae vol. 186 no 1-

Terminal semantics for codata types in intensional Martin-L\"of type theory

In this work, we study the notions of relative comonad and comodule over a relative comonad, and use these notions to give a terminal coalgebra semantics for the coinductive type families of streams and of infinite triangular matrices, respectively, in intensional Martin-L\"of type theory. Our results are mechanized in the proof assistant Coq.Comment: 14 pages, ancillary files contain formalized proof in the proof assistant Coq; v2: 20 pages, title and abstract changed, give a terminal semantics for streams as well as for matrices, Coq proof files updated accordingl