97 research outputs found
Context-free Coalgebras
In this article, we provide a coalgebraic account of parts of the mathematical theory underlying context-free languages. We characterize context-free languages, and power series and streams generalizing or corresponding to the context-free languages, by means of systems of behavioural differential equations; and prove a number of results, some of which are new, and some of which are new proofs of existing theorems, using the techniques of bisimulation and bisimulation up to linear combinations. Furthermore, we establish a link between automatic sequences and these systems of equations, allowing us to, given an automaton generating an automatic sequence, easily construct a system of behavioural differential equations yielding this sequence as a context-free stream
Presenting Distributive Laws
Distributive laws of a monad T over a functor F are categorical tools for
specifying algebra-coalgebra interaction. They proved to be important for
solving systems of corecursive equations, for the specification of well-behaved
structural operational semantics and, more recently, also for enhancements of
the bisimulation proof method. If T is a free monad, then such distributive
laws correspond to simple natural transformations. However, when T is not free
it can be rather difficult to prove the defining axioms of a distributive law.
In this paper we describe how to obtain a distributive law for a monad with an
equational presentation from a distributive law for the underlying free monad.
We apply this result to show the equivalence between two different
representations of context-free languages
QStream: A Suite of Streams
We present a simple tool in Haskell, QStream, implementing the technique of coinductive counting by making use of Haskell's built-in coinduction capabilities. We furthermore provide a number of useful tools for stream exploration, including a number of pretty print functions and integration with the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
The Power of Convex Algebras
Probabilistic automata (PA) combine probability and nondeterminism. They can
be given different semantics, like strong bisimilarity, convex bisimilarity, or
(more recently) distribution bisimilarity. The latter is based on the view of
PA as transformers of probability distributions, also called belief states, and
promotes distributions to first-class citizens.
We give a coalgebraic account of the latter semantics, and explain the
genesis of the belief-state transformer from a PA. To do so, we make explicit
the convex algebraic structure present in PA and identify belief-state
transformers as transition systems with state space that carries a convex
algebra. As a consequence of our abstract approach, we can give a sound proof
technique which we call bisimulation up-to convex hull.Comment: Full (extended) version of a CONCUR 2017 paper, to be submitted to
LMC
Behavioural equivalences for timed systems
Timed transition systems are behavioural models that include an explicit
treatment of time flow and are used to formalise the semantics of several
foundational process calculi and automata. Despite their relevance, a general
mathematical characterisation of timed transition systems and their behavioural
theory is still missing. We introduce the first uniform framework for timed
behavioural models that encompasses known behavioural equivalences such as
timed bisimulations, timed language equivalences as well as their weak and
time-abstract counterparts. All these notions of equivalences are naturally
organised by their discriminating power in a spectrum. We prove that this
result does not depend on the type of the systems under scrutiny: it holds for
any generalisation of timed transition system. We instantiate our framework to
timed transition systems and their quantitative extensions such as timed
probabilistic systems
The Power of Convex Algebras
Probabilistic automata (PA) combine probability and nondeterminism.
They can be given different semantics, like strong bisimilarity,
convex bisimilarity, or (more recently) distribution bisimilarity.
The latter is based on the view of PA as transformers of probability
distributions, also called belief states, and promotes distributions
to first-class citizens.
We give a coalgebraic account of the latter semantics, and explain
the genesis of the belief-state transformer from a PA. To do so, we
make explicit the convex algebraic structure present in PA and
identify belief-state transformers as transition systems with state
space that carries a convex algebra. As a consequence of our abstract
approach, we can give a sound proof technique which we call
bisimulation up-to convex hull
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