Full abstraction for fair testing in CCS (expanded version)

In previous work with Pous, we defined a semantics for CCS which may both be viewed as an innocent form of presheaf semantics and as a concurrent form of game semantics. We define in this setting an analogue of fair testing equivalence, which we prove fully abstract w.r.t. standard fair testing equivalence. The proof relies on a new algebraic notion called playground, which represents the `rule of the game'. From any playground, we derive two languages equipped with labelled transition systems, as well as a strong, functional bisimulation between them.Comment: 80 page

Bisimulation maps in presheaf categories

The category of presheaves on a (small) category is a suitable semantic universe to study behaviour of various dynamical systems. In particular, presheaves can be used to record the executions of a system and their morphisms correspond to simulation maps for various kinds of state-based systems. In this paper, we introduce a notion of bisimulation maps between presheaves (or executions) to capture well known behavioural equivalences in an abstract way. We demonstrate the versatility of this framework by working out the characterisations for standard bisimulation, ∀-fair bisimulation, and branching bisimulation

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

Extending Set Functors to Generalised Metric Spaces

For a commutative quantale V, the category V-cat can be perceived as a category of generalised metric spaces and non-expanding maps. We show that any type constructor T (formalised as an endofunctor on sets) can be extended in a canonical way to a type constructor TV on V-cat. The proof yields methods of explicitly calculating the extension in concrete examples, which cover well-known notions such as the Pompeiu-Hausdorff metric as well as new ones. Conceptually, this allows us to to solve the same recursive domain equation X ≅ TX in different categories (such as sets and metric spaces) and we study how their solutions (that is, the final coalgebras) are related via change of base. Mathematically, the heart of the matter is to show that, for any commutative quantale V, the “discrete functor Set → V-cat from sets to categories enriched over V is V-cat-dense and has a density presentation that allows us to compute left-Kan extensions along D

A Uniform Framework for Timed Automata

Timed automata, and machines alike, currently lack a general mathematical characterisation. In this paper we provide a uniform coalgebraic understanding of these devices. This framework encompasses known behavioural equivalences for timed automata and paves the way for the extension of these notions to new timed behaviours and for the instantiation of established results from the coalgebraic theory as well. Key to this work is the use of lax functors for they allow us to model time flow as a context property and hence offer a general and expressive setting where to study timed systems: the index category encodes "how step sequences form executions" (e.g. whether steps duration get accumulated or kept distinct) whereas the base category encodes "step nature and composition" (e.g. non-determinism and labels). Finally, we develop the notion of general saturation for lax functors and show how equivalences of interest for timed behaviours are instances of this notion. This characterisation allows us to reason about the expressiveness of said notions within a uniform framework and organise them in a spectrum independent from the behavioural aspects encoded in the base category

Relation lifting, with an application to the many-valued cover modality

We introduce basic notions and results about relation liftings on categories enriched in a commutative quantale. We derive two necessary and sufficient conditions for a 2-functor T to admit a functorial relation lifting: one is the existence of a distributive law of T over the "powerset monad" on categories, one is the preservation by T of "exactness" of certain squares. Both characterisations are generalisations of the "classical" results known for set functors: the first characterisation generalises the existence of a distributive law over the genuine powerset monad, the second generalises preservation of weak pullbacks. The results presented in this paper enable us to compute predicate liftings of endofunctors of, for example, generalised (ultra)metric spaces. We illustrate this by studying the coalgebraic cover modality in this setting.Comment: 48 pages, accepted for publication in LMC

A Kleene Theorem for Higher-Dimensional Automata

We prove a Kleene theorem for higher-dimensional automata (HDAs). It states that the languages they recognise are precisely the rational subsumption-closed sets of interval pomsets. The rational operations include a gluing composition, for which we equip pomsets with interfaces. For our proof, we introduce HDAs with interfaces as presheaves over labelled precube categories and use tools inspired by algebraic topology, such as cylinders and (co)fibrations. HDAs are a general model of non-interleaving concurrency, which subsumes many other models in this field. Interval orders are used as models for concurrent or distributed systems where events extend in time. Our tools and techniques may therefore yield templates for Kleene theorems in various models and applications

Relation Liftings on Preorders and Posets

The category Rel(Set) of sets and relations can be described as a category of spans and as the Kleisli category for the powerset monad. A set-functor can be lifted to a functor on Rel(Set) iff it preserves weak pullbacks. We show that these results extend to the enriched setting, if we replace sets by posets or preorders. Preservation of weak pullbacks becomes preservation of exact lax squares. As an application we present Moss's coalgebraic over posets