Representations of first order function types as terminal coalgebras

Cosmic rays provide an important source for free electrons in Earth's atmosphere and also in dense interstellar regions where they produce a prevailing background ionization. We utilize a Monte Carlo cosmic ray transport model for particle energies of 10(6) eV <E <10(9) eV, and an analytic cosmic ray transport model for particle energies of 10(9) eV <E <10(12) eV in order to investigate the cosmic ray enhancement of free electrons in substellar atmospheres of free-floating objects. The cosmic ray calculations are applied to Drift-Phoenix model atmospheres of an example brown dwarf with effective temperature T-eff = 1500 K, and two example giant gas planets (T-eff = 1000 K, 1500 K). For the model brown dwarf atmosphere, the electron fraction is enhanced significantly by cosmic rays when the pressure p(gas) <10(-2) bar. Our example giant gas planet atmosphere suggests that the cosmic ray enhancement extends to 10(-4)-10(-2) bar, depending on the effective temperature. For the model atmosphere of the example giant gas planet considered here (T-eff = 1000 K), cosmic rays bring the degree of ionization to f(e) greater than or similar to 10(-8) when p(gas) <10(-8) bar, suggesting that this part of the atmosphere may behave as a weakly ionized plasma. Although cosmic rays enhance the degree of ionization by over three orders of magnitude in the upper atmosphere, the effect is not likely to be significant enough for sustained coupling of the magnetic field to the gas.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Heterogeneous substitution systems revisited

Matthes and Uustalu (TCS 327(1-2):155-174, 2004) presented a categorical description of substitution systems capable of capturing syntax involving binding which is independent of whether the syntax is made up from least or greatest fixed points. We extend this work in two directions: we continue the analysis by creating more categorical structure, in particular by organizing substitution systems into a category and studying its properties, and we develop the proofs of the results of the cited paper and our new ones in UniMath, a recent library of univalent mathematics formalized in the Coq theorem prover.Comment: 24 page

A principled approach to programming with nested types in Haskell

Initial algebra semantics is one of the cornerstones of the theory of modern functional programming languages. For each inductive data type, it provides a Church encoding for that type, a build combinator which constructs data of that type, a fold combinator which encapsulates structured recursion over data of that type, and a fold/build rule which optimises modular programs by eliminating from them data constructed using the buildcombinator, and immediately consumed using the foldcombinator, for that type. It has long been thought that initial algebra semantics is not expressive enough to provide a similar foundation for programming with nested types in Haskell. Specifically, the standard folds derived from initial algebra semantics have been considered too weak to capture commonly occurring patterns of recursion over data of nested types in Haskell, and no build combinators or fold/build rules have until now been defined for nested types. This paper shows that standard folds are, in fact, sufficiently expressive for programming with nested types in Haskell. It also defines buildcombinators and fold/build fusion rules for nested types. It thus shows how initial algebra semantics provides a principled, expressive, and elegant foundation for programming with nested types in Haskell

Polytypic Functions Over Nested Datatypes

The theory and practice of polytypic programming is intimately connected with the initial algebra semantics of datatypes. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because the underlying theory is beautiful and well developed. It is a curse because the initial algebra semantics is restricted to so-called regular datatypes. Recent work by R. Bird and L. Meertens [3] on the semantics of non-regular or nested datatypes suggests that an extension to general datatypes is not entirely straightforward. Here we propose an alternative that extends polytypism to arbitrary datatypes, including nested datatypes and mutually recursive datatypes. The central idea is to use rational trees over a suitable set of functor symbols as type arguments for polytypic functions. Besides covering a wider range of types the approach is also simpler and technically less involving than previous ones. We present several examples of polytypic functions, among others polytypic reduction and polytypic equality. The presentation assumes some background in functional and in polytypic programming. A basic knowledge of monads is required for some of the examples

Foundations for structured programming with GADTs

GADTs are at the cutting edge of functional programming and become more widely used every day. Nevertheless, the semantic foundations underlying GADTs are not well understood. In this paper we solve this problem by showing that the standard theory of data types as carriers of initial algebras of functors can be extended from algebraic and nested data types to GADTs. We then use this observation to derive an initial algebra semantics for GADTs, thus ensuring that all of the accumulated knowledge about initial algebras can be brought to bear on them. Next, we use our initial algebra semantics for GADTs to derive expressive and principled tools — analogous to the well-known and widely-used ones for algebraic and nested data types — for reasoning about, programming with, and improving the performance of programs involving, GADTs; we christen such a collection of tools for a GADT an initial algebra package. Along the way, we give a constructive demonstration that every GADT can be reduced to one which uses only the equality GADT and existential quantification. Although other such reductions exist in the literature, ours is entirely local, is independent of any particular syntactic presentation of GADTs, and can be implemented in the host language, rather than existing solely as a metatheoretical artifact. The main technical ideas underlying our approach are (i) to modify the notion of a higher-order functor so that GADTs can be seen as carriers of initial algebras of higher-order functors, and (ii) to use left Kan extensions to trade arbitrary GADTs for simpler-but-equivalent ones for which initial algebra semantics can be derive

The Rooster and the Syntactic Bracket

We propose an extension of pure type systems with an algebraic presentation of inductive and co-inductive type families with proper indices. This type theory supports coercions toward from smaller sorts to bigger sorts via explicit type construction, as well as impredicative sorts. Type families in impredicative sorts are constructed with a bracketing operation. The necessary restrictions of pattern-matching from impredicative sorts to types are confined to the bracketing construct. This type theory gives an alternative presentation to the calculus of inductive constructions on which the Coq proof assistant is an implementation.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Types for Proofs and Program

Verification of redecoration for infinite triangular matrices using coinduction

International audienceFinite triangular matrices with a dedicated type for the diagonal elements can be profitably represented by a nested data type, i. e., a heterogeneous family of inductive data types, while infinite triangular matrices form an example of a nested coinductive type, which is a heterogeneous family of coinductive data types. Redecoration for infinite triangular matrices is taken up from previous work involving the first author, and it is shown that redecoration forms a comonad with respect to bisimilarity. The main result, however, is a validation of the original algorithm against a model based on infinite streams of infinite streams. The two formulations are even provably equivalent, and the second is identified as a special instance of the generic cobind operation resulting from the well-known comultiplication operation on streams that creates the stream of successive tails of a given stream. Thus, perhaps surprisingly, the verification of redecoration is easier for infinite triangular matrices than for their finite counterpart. All the results have been obtained and are fully formalized in the current version of the Coq theorem proving environment where these coinductive datatypes are fully supported since the version 8.1, released in 2007. Nonetheless, instead of displaying the Coq development, we have chosen to write the paper in standard mathematical and type-theoretic language. Thus, it should be accessible without any specific knowledge about Coq

Fibrational induction rules for initial algebras

This paper provides an induction rule that can be used to prove properties of data structures whose types are inductive, i.e., are carriers of initial algebras of functors. Our results are semantic in nature and are inspired by Hermida and Jacobs’ elegant algebraic formulation of induction for polynomial data types. Our contribution is to derive, under slightly different assumptions, an induction rule that is generic over all inductive types, polynomial or not. Our induction rule is generic over the kinds of properties to be proved as well: like Hermida and Jacobs, we work in a general fibrational setting and so can accommodate very general notions of properties on inductive types rather than just those of particular syntactic forms. We establish the correctness of our generic induction rule by reducing induction to iteration. We show how our rule can be instantiated to give induction rules for the data types of rose trees, finite hereditary sets, and hyperfunctions. The former lies outside the scope of Hermida and Jacobs’ work because it is not polynomial; as far as we are aware, no induction rules have been known to exist for the latter two in a general fibrational framework. Our instantiation for hyperfunctions underscores the value of working in the general fibrational setting since this data type cannot be interpreted as a set

Types and Semantics for Extensible Data Types (Extended Version)

Developing and maintaining software commonly requires (1) adding new data type constructors to existing applications, but also (2) adding new functions that work on existing data. Most programming languages have native support for defining data types and functions in a way that supports either (1) or (2), but not both. This lack of native support makes it difficult to use and extend libraries. A theoretically well-studied solution is to define data types and functions using initial algebra semantics. While it is possible to encode this solution in existing programming languages, such encodings add syntactic and interpretive overhead, and commonly fail to take advantage of the map and fold fusion laws of initial algebras which compilers could exploit to generate more efficient code. A solution to these is to provide native support for initial algebra semantics. In this paper, we develop such a solution and present a type discipline and core calculus for a language with native support for initial algebra semantics.Comment: Extended version (28 pages) of the eponymous paper to appear in the conference proceedings of APLAS 202

Foundational nonuniform (co)datatypes for higher-order logic

Nonuniform (or “nested” or “heterogeneous”) datatypes are recursively defined types in which the type arguments vary recursively. They arise in the implementation of finger trees and other efficient functional data structures. We show how to reduce a large class of nonuniform datatypes and codatatypes to uniform types in higher-order logic. We programmed this reduction in the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant, thereby enriching its specification language. Moreover, we derive (co)recusion and (co)induction principles based on a weak variant of parametricity