A General Framework for the Semantics of Type Theory

We propose an abstract notion of a type theory to unify the semantics of various type theories including Martin-L\"{o}f type theory, two-level type theory and cubical type theory. We establish basic results in the semantics of type theory: every type theory has a bi-initial model; every model of a type theory has its internal language; the category of theories over a type theory is bi-equivalent to a full sub-2-category of the 2-category of models of the type theory

The Price equation program: simple invariances unify population dynamics, thermodynamics, probability, information and inference

The fundamental equations of various disciplines often seem to share the same basic structure. Natural selection increases information in the same way that Bayesian updating increases information. Thermodynamics and the forms of common probability distributions express maximum increase in entropy, which appears mathematically as loss of information. Physical mechanics follows paths of change that maximize Fisher information. The information expressions typically have analogous interpretations as the Newtonian balance between force and acceleration, representing a partition between direct causes of change and opposing changes in the frame of reference. This web of vague analogies hints at a deeper common mathematical structure. I suggest that the Price equation expresses that underlying universal structure. The abstract Price equation describes dynamics as the change between two sets. One component of dynamics expresses the change in the frequency of things, holding constant the values associated with things. The other component of dynamics expresses the change in the values of things, holding constant the frequency of things. The separation of frequency from value generalizes Shannon's separation of the frequency of symbols from the meaning of symbols in information theory. The Price equation's generalized separation of frequency and value reveals a few simple invariances that define universal geometric aspects of change. For example, the conservation of total frequency, although a trivial invariance by itself, creates a powerful constraint on the geometry of change. That constraint plus a few others seem to explain the common structural forms of the equations in different disciplines. From that abstract perspective, interpretations such as selection, information, entropy, force, acceleration, and physical work arise from the same underlying geometry expressed by the Price equation.Comment: Version 3: added figure illustrating geometry; added table of symbols and two tables summarizing mathematical relations; this version accepted for publication in Entrop

Coalgebraic completeness-via-canonicity for distributive substructural logics

We prove strong completeness of a range of substructural logics with respect to a natural poset-based relational semantics using a coalgebraic version of completeness-via-canonicity. By formalizing the problem in the language of coalgebraic logics, we develop a modular theory which covers a wide variety of different logics under a single framework, and lends itself to further extensions. Moreover, we believe that the coalgebraic framework provides a systematic and principled way to study the relationship between resource models on the semantics side, and substructural logics on the syntactic side.Comment: 36 page

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

Polynomial functors and combinatorial Dyson-Schwinger equations

We present a general abstract framework for combinatorial Dyson-Schwinger equations, in which combinatorial identities are lifted to explicit bijections of sets, and more generally equivalences of groupoids. Key features of combinatorial Dyson-Schwinger equations are revealed to follow from general categorical constructions and universal properties. Rather than beginning with an equation inside a given Hopf algebra and referring to given Hochschild $1$-cocycles, our starting point is an abstract fixpoint equation in groupoids, shown canonically to generate all the algebraic structure. Precisely, for any finitary polynomial endofunctor $P$ defined over groupoids, the system of combinatorial Dyson-Schwinger equations $X=1+P(X)$ has a universal solution, namely the groupoid of $P$-trees. The isoclasses of $P$-trees generate naturally a Connes-Kreimer-like bialgebra, in which the abstract Dyson-Schwinger equation can be internalised in terms of canonical $B_+$-operators. The solution to this equation is a series (the Green function) which always enjoys a Fa\`a di Bruno formula, and hence generates a sub-bialgebra isomorphic to the Fa\`a di Bruno bialgebra. Varying $P$ yields different bialgebras, and cartesian natural transformations between various $P$ yield bialgebra homomorphisms and sub-bialgebras, corresponding for example to truncation of Dyson-Schwinger equations. Finally, all constructions can be pushed inside the classical Connes-Kreimer Hopf algebra of trees by the operation of taking core of $P$-trees. A byproduct of the theory is an interpretation of combinatorial Green functions as inductive data types in the sense of Martin-L\"of Type Theory (expounded elsewhere).Comment: v4: minor adjustments, 49pp, final version to appear in J. Math. Phy

String compactifications on Calabi-Yau stacks

In this paper we study string compactifications on Deligne-Mumford stacks. The basic idea is that all such stacks have presentations to which one can associate gauged sigma models, where the group gauged need be neither finite nor effectively-acting. Such presentations are not unique, and lead to physically distinct gauged sigma models; stacks classify universality classes of gauged sigma models, not gauged sigma models themselves. We begin by defining and justifying a notion of ``Calabi-Yau stack,'' recall how one defines sigma models on (presentations of) stacks, and calculate of physical properties of such sigma models, such as closed and open string spectra. We describe how the boundary states in the open string B model on a Calabi-Yau stack are counted by derived categories of coherent sheaves on the stack. Along the way, we describe numerous tests that IR physics is presentation-independent, justifying the claim that stacks classify universality classes. String orbifolds are one special case of these compactifications, a subject which has proven controversial in the past; however we resolve the objections to this description of which we are aware. In particular, we discuss the apparent mismatch between stack moduli and physical moduli, and how that discrepancy is resolved.Comment: 85 pages, LaTeX; v2: typos fixe