A doctrinal approach to modal/temporal Heyting logic and non-determinism in processes

The study of algebraic modelling of labelled non-deterministic concurrent processes leads us to consider a category LB , obtained from a complete meet-semilattice B and from B-valued equivalence relations. We prove that, if B has enough properties, then LB presents a two-fold internal logical structure, induced by two doctrines definable on it: one related to its families of subobjects and one to its families of regular subobjects. The first doctrine is Heyting and makes LB a Heyting category, the second one is Boolean. We will see that the difference between these two logical structures, namely the different behaviour of the negation operator, can be interpreted in terms of a distinction between non-deterministic and deterministic behaviours of agents able to perform computations in the context of the same process. Moreover, the sorted first-order logic naturally associated with LB can be extended to a modal/temporal logic, again using the doctrinal setting. Relations are also drawn to other computational model

Infinite combinatorial issues raised by lifting problems in universal algebra

The critical point between varieties A and B of algebras is defined as the least cardinality of the semilattice of compact congruences of a member of A but of no member of B, if it exists. The study of critical points gives rise to a whole array of problems, often involving lifting problems of either diagrams or objects, with respect to functors. These, in turn, involve problems that belong to infinite combinatorics. We survey some of the combinatorial problems and results thus encountered. The corresponding problematic is articulated around the notion of a k-ladder (for proving that a critical point is large), large free set theorems and the classical notation (k,r,l){\to}m (for proving that a critical point is small). In the middle, we find l-lifters of posets and the relation (k, < l){\to}P, for infinite cardinals k and l and a poset P.Comment: 22 pages. Order, to appea

A note on SPKI's authorisation syntax

Tuple reduction is the basic mechanism used in SPKI to make authorisation decisions. A basic problem with the SPKI authorisation syntax is that straightforward implementations of tuple reduction are quadratic in both time and space. In the paper we introduce a restricted version of the SPKI authorisation syntax, which appears to conform well with practice, and for which authorisation decisions can be made in nearly linear time

On idempotent n-ary semigroups

This thesis, which consists of two parts, focuses on characterizations and descriptions of classes of idempotent n-ary semigroups where n >= 2 is an integer. Part I is devoted to the study of various classes of idempotent semigroups and their link with certain concepts stemming from social choice theory. In Part II, we provide constructive descriptions of various classes of idempotent n-ary semigroups. More precisely, after recalling and studying the concepts of single-peakedness and rectangular semigroups in Chapters 1 and 2, respectively, in Chapter 3 we provide characterizations of the classes of idempotent semigroups and totally ordered idempotent semigroups, in which the latter two concepts play a central role. Then in Chapter 4 we particularize the latter characterizations to the classes of quasitrivial semigroups and totally ordered quasitrivial semigroups. We then generalize these results to the class of quasitrivial n-ary semigroups in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 is devoted to characterizations of several classes of idempotent n-ary semigroups satisfying quasitriviality on certain subsets of the domain. Finally, Chapter 7 focuses on characterizations of the class of symmetric idempotent n-ary semigroups. Throughout this thesis, we also provide several enumeration results which led to new integer sequences that are now recorded in The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS). For instance, one of these enumeration results led to a new definition of the Catalan numbers