Semigroups with if-then-else and halting programs

The "if–then–else" construction is one of the most elementary programming commands, and its abstract laws have been widely studied, starting with McCarthy. Possibly, the most obvious extension of this is to include the operation of composition of programs, which gives a semigroup of functions (total, partial, or possibly general binary relations) that can be recombined using if–then–else. We show that this particular extension admits no finite complete axiomatization and instead focus on the case where composition of functions with predicates is also allowed (and we argue there is good reason to take this approach). In the case of total functions — modeling halting programs — we give a complete axiomatization for the theory in terms of a finite system of equations. We obtain a similar result when an operation of equality test and/or fixed point test is included

Monoids with tests and the algebra of possibly non-halting programs

We study the algebraic theory of computable functions, which can be viewed as arising from possibly non-halting computer programs or algorithms, acting on some state space, equipped with operations of composition, if-then-else and while-do defined in terms of a Boolean algebra of conditions. It has previously been shown that there is no finite axiomatisation of algebras of partial functions under these operations alone, and this holds even if one restricts attention to transformations (representing halting programs) rather than partial functions, and omits while-do from the signature. In the halting case, there is a natural “fix”, which is to allow composition of halting programs with conditions, and then the resulting algebras admit a finite axiomatisation. In the current setting such compositions are not possible, but by extending the notion of if-then-else, we are able to give finite axiomatisations of the resulting algebras of (partial) functions, with while-do in the signature if the state space is assumed finite. The axiomatisations are extended to consider the partial predicate of equality. All algebras considered turn out to be enrichments of the notion of a (one-sided) restriction semigrou

Abelian networks II. Halting on all inputs

Abelian networks are systems of communicating automata satisfying a local commutativity condition. We show that a finite irreducible abelian network halts on all inputs if and only if all eigenvalues of its production matrix lie in the open unit disk.Comment: Supersedes sections 5 and 6 of arXiv:1309.3445v1. To appear in Selecta Mathematic

The Algebraic View of Computation

We argue that computation is an abstract algebraic concept, and a computer is a result of a morphism (a structure preserving map) from a finite universal semigroup.Comment: 13 pages, final version will be published elsewher

Well structured program equivalence is highly undecidable

We show that strict deterministic propositional dynamic logic with intersection is highly undecidable, solving a problem in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In fact we show something quite a bit stronger. We introduce the construction of program equivalence, which returns the value $\mathsf{T}$ precisely when two given programs are equivalent on halting computations. We show that virtually any variant of propositional dynamic logic has $\Pi_1^1$-hard validity problem if it can express even just the equivalence of well-structured programs with the empty program \texttt{skip}. We also show, in these cases, that the set of propositional statements valid over finite models is not recursively enumerable, so there is not even an axiomatisation for finitely valid propositions.Comment: 8 page

(Un)decidable Problems about Reachability of Quantum Systems

We study the reachability problem of a quantum system modelled by a quantum automaton. The reachable sets are chosen to be boolean combinations of (closed) subspaces of the state space of the quantum system. Four different reachability properties are considered: eventually reachable, globally reachable, ultimately forever reachable, and infinitely often reachable. The main result of this paper is that all of the four reachability properties are undecidable in general; however, the last three become decidable if the reachable sets are boolean combinations without negation

The Algebraic Properties of if-then-else with Commutative Three-Valued Tests

This thesis studies an algebraic model of computable programs and the if-then-else operation. The programs here are considered deterministic, but not assumed to be always halting, so they are modelled by a semigroup of partial functions, with several extra operations in addition to the original binary operation of the semigroup. The if-then-else operation involves not only programs, but logical tests too. Hence, it calls for a separate algebra of tests. Evaluating a test often requires running another program, so the tests are also possibly non halting. When tests do not always halt, the results of conjunctions (logical ‘and’) and disjunctions (logical ‘or’) can differ, depending on whether sequential or parallel evaluation is applied. The parallel evaluation is what this thesis adopts. The overall ‘program algebra’ consists of two sorts, one of programs and the other of tests. Each sort has its own operations, and there are hybrid operations such as if-then-else which involve both sorts. This thesis establishes the axioms of all these operations by building an embedding from the abstract program algebra into a concrete one. At the end is a discussion on the algebra of tests without the programs, where the differences between the two evaluation paradigms are explored in detail