539 research outputs found
Characterising Testing Preorders for Finite Probabilistic Processes
In 1992 Wang & Larsen extended the may- and must preorders of De Nicola and
Hennessy to processes featuring probabilistic as well as nondeterministic
choice. They concluded with two problems that have remained open throughout the
years, namely to find complete axiomatisations and alternative
characterisations for these preorders. This paper solves both problems for
finite processes with silent moves. It characterises the may preorder in terms
of simulation, and the must preorder in terms of failure simulation. It also
gives a characterisation of both preorders using a modal logic. Finally it
axiomatises both preorders over a probabilistic version of CSP.Comment: 33 page
Towards a Uniform Theory of Effectful State Machines
Using recent developments in coalgebraic and monad-based semantics, we
present a uniform study of various notions of machines, e.g. finite state
machines, multi-stack machines, Turing machines, valence automata, and weighted
automata. They are instances of Jacobs' notion of a T-automaton, where T is a
monad. We show that the generic language semantics for T-automata correctly
instantiates the usual language semantics for a number of known classes of
machines/languages, including regular, context-free, recursively-enumerable and
various subclasses of context free languages (e.g. deterministic and real-time
ones). Moreover, our approach provides new generic techniques for studying the
expressivity power of various machine-based models.Comment: final version accepted by TOC
Probabilistic Rely-guarantee Calculus
Jones' rely-guarantee calculus for shared variable concurrency is extended to
include probabilistic behaviours. We use an algebraic approach which combines
and adapts probabilistic Kleene algebras with concurrent Kleene algebra.
Soundness of the algebra is shown relative to a general probabilistic event
structure semantics. The main contribution of this paper is a collection of
rely-guarantee rules built on top of that semantics. In particular, we show how
to obtain bounds on probabilities by deriving rely-guarantee rules within the
true-concurrent denotational semantics. The use of these rules is illustrated
by a detailed verification of a simple probabilistic concurrent program: a
faulty Eratosthenes sieve.Comment: Preprint submitted to TCS-QAP
The Theory of Traces for Systems with Nondeterminism, Probability, and Termination
This paper studies trace-based equivalences for systems combining
nondeterministic and probabilistic choices. We show how trace semantics for
such processes can be recovered by instantiating a coalgebraic construction
known as the generalised powerset construction. We characterise and compare the
resulting semantics to known definitions of trace equivalences appearing in the
literature. Most of our results are based on the exciting interplay between
monads and their presentations via algebraic theories.Comment: This paper is an extended version of a LICS 2019 paper "The Theory of
Traces for Systems with Nondeterminism and Probability". It contains all the
proofs, additional explanations, material, and example
Making Random Choices Invisible to the Scheduler
When dealing with process calculi and automata which express both
nondeterministic and probabilistic behavior, it is customary to introduce the
notion of scheduler to solve the nondeterminism. It has been observed that for
certain applications, notably those in security, the scheduler needs to be
restricted so not to reveal the outcome of the protocol's random choices, or
otherwise the model of adversary would be too strong even for ``obviously
correct'' protocols. We propose a process-algebraic framework in which the
control on the scheduler can be specified in syntactic terms, and we show how
to apply it to solve the problem mentioned above. We also consider the
definition of (probabilistic) may and must preorders, and we show that they are
precongruences with respect to the restricted schedulers. Furthermore, we show
that all the operators of the language, except replication, distribute over
probabilistic summation, which is a useful property for verification
The theory of traces for systems with nondeterminism and probability
This paper studies trace-based equivalences for systems combining nondeterministic and probabilistic choices. We show how trace semantics for such processes can be recovered by instantiating a coalgebraic construction known as the generalised powerset construction. We characterise and compare the resulting semantics to known definitions of trace equivalences appearing in the literature. Most of our results are based on the exciting interplay between monads and their presentations via algebraic theories
The Spectrum of Strong Behavioral Equivalences for Nondeterministic and Probabilistic Processes
We present a spectrum of trace-based, testing, and bisimulation equivalences
for nondeterministic and probabilistic processes whose activities are all
observable. For every equivalence under study, we examine the discriminating
power of three variants stemming from three approaches that differ for the way
probabilities of events are compared when nondeterministic choices are resolved
via deterministic schedulers. We show that the first approach - which compares
two resolutions relatively to the probability distributions of all considered
events - results in a fragment of the spectrum compatible with the spectrum of
behavioral equivalences for fully probabilistic processes. In contrast, the
second approach - which compares the probabilities of the events of a
resolution with the probabilities of the same events in possibly different
resolutions - gives rise to another fragment composed of coarser equivalences
that exhibits several analogies with the spectrum of behavioral equivalences
for fully nondeterministic processes. Finally, the third approach - which only
compares the extremal probabilities of each event stemming from the different
resolutions - yields even coarser equivalences that, however, give rise to a
hierarchy similar to that stemming from the second approach.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2013, arXiv:1306.241
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