Expressiveness via Intensionality and Concurrency

International audienceComputation can be considered by taking into account two dimensions: extensional versus intensional, and sequential versus concurrent. Traditionally sequential extensional computation can be captured by the lambda-calculus. However, recent work shows that there are more expressive intensional calculi such as SF-calculus. Traditionally process calculi capture computation by encoding the lambda-calculus, such as in the pi-calculus. Following this increased expressiveness via intensionality, other recent work has shown that concurrent pattern calculus is more expressive than pi-calculus. This paper formalises the relative expressiveness of all four of these calculi by placing them on a square whose edges are irreversible encodings. This square is representative of a more general result: that expressiveness increases with both intensionality and concurrency

Bibliography on Realizability

AbstractThis document is a bibliography on realizability and related matters. It has been collected by Lars Birkedal based on submissions from the participants in “A Workshop on Realizability Semantics and Its Applications”, Trento, Italy, June 30–July 1, 1999. It is available in BibTEX format at the following URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu./~birkedal/realizability-bib.html

Superposition for Lambda-Free Higher-Order Logic

We introduce refutationally complete superposition calculi for intentional and extensional clausal $\lambda$-free higher-order logic, two formalisms that allow partial application and applied variables. The calculi are parameterized by a term order that need not be fully monotonic, making it possible to employ the $\lambda$-free higher-order lexicographic path and Knuth-Bendix orders. We implemented the calculi in the Zipperposition prover and evaluated them on Isabelle/HOL and TPTP benchmarks. They appear promising as a stepping stone towards complete, highly efficient automatic theorem provers for full higher-order logic

Partial Applicative Theories and Explicit Substitutions

Systems based on theories with partial self-application are relevant to the formalization of constructive mathematics and as a logical basis for functional programming languages. In the literature they are either presented in the form of partial combinatory logic or the partial A calculus, and sometimes these two approaches are erroneously considered to be equivalent. In this paper we address some defects of the partial λ calculus as a constructive framework for partial functions. In particular, the partial λ calculus is not embeddable into partial combinatory logic and it lacks the standard recursion-theoretic model. The main reason is a concept of substitution, which is not consistent with a strongly intensional point of view. We design a weakening of the partial λ calculus, which can be embedded into partial combinatory logic. As a consequence, the natural numbers with partial recursive function application are a model of our system. The novel point will be the use of explicit substitutions, which have previously been studied in the literature in connection with the implementation of functional programming language

Proving the genericity lemma by leftmost reduction is simple

The Genericity Lemma is one of the most important motivations to take in the untyped lambda calculus the notion of solvability as a formal representation of the informal notion of undefinedness. We generalise solvability towards typed lambda calculi, and we call this generalisation: usability. We then prove the Genericity Lemma for un-usable terms. The technique of the proof is based on leftmost reduction, which strongly simplifies the standard proof