Rigidity is undecidable

We show that the problem `whether a finite set of regular-linear axioms defines a rigid theory' is undecidable.Comment: 8 page

The Euler characteristic of a category

The Euler characteristic of a finite category is defined and shown to be compatible with Euler characteristics of other types of object, including orbifolds. A formula is proved for the cardinality of a colimit of sets, generalizing the classical inclusion-exclusion formula. Both rest on a generalization of Rota's Möbius inversion from posets to categories

Strictification of weakly stable type-theoretic structures using generic contexts

We present a new strictification method for type-theoretic structures that are only weakly stable under substitution. Given weakly stable structures over some model of type theory, we construct equivalent strictly stable structures by evaluating the weakly stable structures at generic contexts. These generic contexts are specified using the categorical notion of familial representability. This generalizes the local universes method of Lumsdaine and Warren. We show that generic contexts can also be constructed in any category with families which is freely generated by collections of types and terms, without any definitional equality. This relies on the fact that they support first-order unification. These free models can only be equipped with weak type-theoretic structures, whose computation rules are given by typal equalities. Our main result is that any model of type theory with weakly stable weak type-theoretic structures admits an equivalent model with strictly stable weak type-theoretic structures

Innocent strategies as presheaves and interactive equivalences for CCS

Seeking a general framework for reasoning about and comparing programming languages, we derive a new view of Milner's CCS. We construct a category E of plays, and a subcategory V of views. We argue that presheaves on V adequately represent innocent strategies, in the sense of game semantics. We then equip innocent strategies with a simple notion of interaction. This results in an interpretation of CCS. Based on this, we propose a notion of interactive equivalence for innocent strategies, which is close in spirit to Beffara's interpretation of testing equivalences in concurrency theory. In this framework we prove that the analogues of fair and must testing equivalences coincide, while they differ in the standard setting.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2011, arXiv:1108.014

Theories of analytic monads

We characterize the equational theories and Lawvere theories that correspond to the categories of analytic and polynomial monads on Set, and hence also the categories of the symmetric and rigid operads in Set. We show that the category of analytic monads is equivalent to the category of regular-linear theories. The category of polynomial monads is equivalent to the category of rigid theories, i.e. regular-linear theories satisfying an additional global condition. This solves a problem A. Carboni and P. T. Johnstone. The Lawvere theories corresponding to these monads are identified via some factorization systems.Comment: 29 pages. v2: minor correction