Bisimilarity is not Borel

We prove that the relation of bisimilarity between countable labelled transition systems is $\Sigma_1^1$-complete (hence not Borel), by reducing the set of non-wellorders over the natural numbers continuously to it. This has an impact on the theory of probabilistic and nondeterministic processes over uncountable spaces, since logical characterizations of bisimilarity (as, for instance, those based on the unique structure theorem for analytic spaces) require a countable logic whose formulas have measurable semantics. Our reduction shows that such a logic does not exist in the case of image-infinite processes.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure; proof of Sigma_1^1 completeness added with extended comments. I acknowledge careful reading by the referees. Major changes in Introduction, Conclusion, and motivation for NLMP. Proof for Lemma 22 added, simpler proofs for Lemma 17 and Theorem 30. Added references. Part of this work was presented at Dagstuhl Seminar 12411 on Coalgebraic Logic

A generic operational metatheory for algebraic effects

We provide a syntactic analysis of contextual preorder and equivalence for a polymorphic programming language with effects. Our approach applies uniformly across a range of algebraic effects, and incorporates, as instances: errors, input/output, global state, nondeterminism, probabilistic choice, and combinations thereof. Our approach is to extend Plotkin and Power’s structural operational semantics for algebraic effects (FoSSaCS 2001) with a primitive “basic preorder” on ground type computation trees. The basic preorder is used to derive notions of contextual preorder and equivalence on program terms. Under mild assumptions on this relation, we prove fundamental properties of contextual preorder (hence equivalence) including extensionality properties and a characterisation via applicative contexts, and we provide machinery for reasoning about polymorphism using relational parametricity

Relational Parametricity for Computational Effects

According to Strachey, a polymorphic program is parametric if it applies a uniform algorithm independently of the type instantiations at which it is applied. The notion of relational parametricity, introduced by Reynolds, is one possible mathematical formulation of this idea. Relational parametricity provides a powerful tool for establishing data abstraction properties, proving equivalences of datatypes, and establishing equalities of programs. Such properties have been well studied in a pure functional setting. Many programs, however, exhibit computational effects, and are not accounted for by the standard theory of relational parametricity. In this paper, we develop a foundational framework for extending the notion of relational parametricity to programming languages with effects.Comment: 31 pages, appears in Logical Methods in Computer Scienc

A Generic Operational Metatheory for Algebraic Effects

We provide a syntactic analysis of contextualpreorder and equivalence for a polymorphic programminglanguage with effects. Our approach applies uniformly acrossa range of algebraic effects, and incorporates, as instances:errors, input/output, global state, nondeterminism, probabilisticchoice, and combinations thereof. Our approach is toextend Plotkin and Power’s structural operational semanticsfor algebraic effects (FoSSaCS 2001) with a primitive “basicpreorder” on ground type computation trees. The basic preorderis used to derive notions of contextual preorder andequivalence on program terms. Under mild assumptions onthis relation, we prove fundamental properties of contextualpreorder (hence equivalence) including extensionality propertiesand a characterization via applicative contexts, and weprovide machinery for reasoning about polymorphism usingrelational parametricity

A Concurrent Logical Relation

Abstract—We present a logical relation for showing the correctness of program transformations based on a new type-and-effect system for a concurrent extension of an ML-like language with higher-order functions, higher-order store and dynamic memory allocation. We show how to use our model to verify a number of interesting program transformations that rely on effect annotations. In particular, we prove a Parallelization Theorem, which expresses when it is sound to run two expressions in parallel instead of sequentially. The conditions are expressed solely in terms of the types and effects of the expressions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such result for a concurrent higher-order language with higher-order store and dynamic memory allocation. I