Coalgebras on Measurable Spaces

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, Mathematics, 2005Given an endofunctor T in a category C, a coalgebra is a pair (X,c) consisting of an object X and a morphism c:X ->T(X). X is called the carrier and the morphism c is called the structure map of the T-coalgebra. The theory of coalgebras has been found to abstract common features of different areas like computer program semantics, modal logic, automata, non-well-founded sets, etc. Most of the work on concrete examples, however, has been limited to the category Set. The work developed in this dissertation is concerned with the category Meas of measurable spaces and measurable functions. Coalgebras of measurable spaces are of interest as a formalization of Markov Chains and can also be used to model probabilistic reasoning. We discuss some general facts related to the most interesting functor in Meas, Delta, that assigns to each measurable space, the space of all probability measures on it. We show that this functor does not preserve weak pullbacks or omega op-limits, conditions assumed in many theorems about coalgebras. The main result will be two constructions of final coalgebras for many interesting functors in Meas. The first construction (joint work with L. Moss), is based on a modal language that lets us build formulas that describe the elements of the final coalgebra. The second method makes use of a subset of the projective limit of the final sequence for the functor in question. That is, the sequence 1 <- T1 <- T 2 1 <-... obtained by iteratively applying the functor to the terminal element 1 of the category. Since these methods seem to be new, we also show how to use them in the category Set, where they provide some insight on how the structure map of the final coalgebra works. We show as an application how to construct universal Type Spaces, an object of interest in Game Theory and Economics. We also compare our method with previously existing constructions

Niceness theorems

Many things in mathematics seem lamost unreasonably nice. This includes objects, counterexamples, proofs. In this preprint I discuss many examples of this phenomenon with emphasis on the ring of polynomials in a countably infinite number of variables in its many incarnations such as the representing object of the Witt vectors, the direct sum of the rings of representations of the symmetric groups, the free lambda ring on one generator, the homology and cohomology of the classifying space BU, ... . In addition attention is paid to the phenomenon that solutions to universal problems (adjoint functors) tend to pick up extra structure.Comment: 52 page

Decomposition spaces in combinatorics

A decomposition space (also called unital 2-Segal space) is a simplicial object satisfying an exactness condition weaker than the Segal condition: just as the Segal condition expresses (up to homotopy) composition, the new condition expresses decomposition. It is a general framework for incidence (co)algebras. In the present contribution, after establishing a formula for the section coefficients, we survey a large supply of examples, emphasising the notion's firm roots in classical combinatorics. The first batch of examples, similar to binomial posets, serves to illustrate two key points: (1) the incidence algebra in question is realised directly from a decomposition space, without a reduction step, and reductions are often given by CULF functors; (2) at the objective level, the convolution algebra is a monoidal structure of species. Specifically, we encounter the usual Cauchy product of species, the shuffle product of L-species, the Dirichlet product of arithmetic species, the Joyal-Street external product of q-species and the Morrison `Cauchy' product of q-species, and in each case a power series representation results from taking cardinality. The external product of q-species exemplifies the fact that Waldhausen's S-construction on an abelian category is a decomposition space, yielding Hall algebras. The next class of examples includes Schmitt's chromatic Hopf algebra, the Fa\`a di Bruno bialgebra, the Butcher-Connes-Kreimer Hopf algebra of trees and several variations from operad theory. Similar structures on posets and directed graphs exemplify a general construction of decomposition spaces from directed restriction species. We finish by computing the M\Preprin

Sound and complete axiomatizations of coalgebraic language equivalence

Coalgebras provide a uniform framework to study dynamical systems, including several types of automata. In this paper, we make use of the coalgebraic view on systems to investigate, in a uniform way, under which conditions calculi that are sound and complete with respect to behavioral equivalence can be extended to a coarser coalgebraic language equivalence, which arises from a generalised powerset construction that determinises coalgebras. We show that soundness and completeness are established by proving that expressions modulo axioms of a calculus form the rational fixpoint of the given type functor. Our main result is that the rational fixpoint of the functor $FT$, where $T$ is a monad describing the branching of the systems (e.g. non-determinism, weights, probability etc.), has as a quotient the rational fixpoint of the "determinised" type functor $\bar F$, a lifting of $F$ to the category of $T$-algebras. We apply our framework to the concrete example of weighted automata, for which we present a new sound and complete calculus for weighted language equivalence. As a special case, we obtain non-deterministic automata, where we recover Rabinovich's sound and complete calculus for language equivalence.Comment: Corrected version of published journal articl

Generalized labelled Markov processes, coalgebraically

Coalgebras of measurable spaces are of interest in probability theory as a formalization of Labelled Markov Processes (LMPs). We discuss some general facts related to the notions of bisimulation and cocongruence on these systems, providing a faithful characterization of bisimulation on LMPs on generic measurable spaces. This has been used to prove that bisimilarity on single LMPs is an equivalence, without assuming the state space to be analytic. As the second main contribution, we introduce the first specification rule format to define well-behaved composition operators for LMPs. This allows one to define process description languages on LMPs which are always guaranteed to have a fully-abstract semantics

Constructive Final Semantics of Finite Bags

Finitely-branching and unlabelled dynamical systems are typically modelled as coalgebras for the finite powerset functor. If states are reachable in multiple ways, coalgebras for the finite bag functor provide a more faithful representation. The final coalgebra of this functor is employed as a denotational domain for the evaluation of such systems. Elements of the final coalgebra are non-wellfounded trees with finite unordered branching, representing the evolution of systems starting from a given initial state. This paper is dedicated to the construction of the final coalgebra of the finite bag functor in homotopy type theory (HoTT). We first compare various equivalent definitions of finite bags employing higher inductive types, both as sets and as groupoids (in the sense of HoTT). We then analyze a few well-known, classical set-theoretic constructions of final coalgebras in our constructive setting. We show that, in the case of set-based definitions of finite bags, some constructions are intrinsically classical, in the sense that they are equivalent to some weak form of excluded middle. Nevertheless, a type satisfying the universal property of the final coalgebra can be constructed in HoTT employing the groupoid-based definition of finite bags. We conclude by discussing generalizations of our constructions to the wider class of analytic functors

A behavioural pseudometric for probabilistic transition systems

AbstractDiscrete notions of behavioural equivalence sit uneasily with semantic models featuring quantitative data, like probabilistic transition systems. In this paper, we present a pseudometric on a class of probabilistic transition systems yielding a quantitative notion of behavioural equivalence. The pseudometric is defined via the terminal coalgebra of a functor based on a metric on the space of Borel probability measures on a metric space. States of a probabilistic transition system have distance 0 if and only if they are probabilistic bisimilar. We also characterize our distance function in terms of a real-valued modal logic

Type-Theoretic Constructions of the Final Coalgebra of the Finite Powerset Functor

The finite powerset functor is a construct frequently employed for the specification of nondeterministic transition systems as coalgebras. The final coalgebra of the finite powerset functor, whose elements characterize the dynamical behavior of transition systems, is a well-understood object which enjoys many equivalent presentations in set-theoretic foundations based on classical logic. In this paper, we discuss various constructions of the final coalgebra of the finite powerset functor in constructive type theory, and we formalize our results in the Cubical Agda proof assistant. Using setoids, the final coalgebra of the finite powerset functor can be defined from the final coalgebra of the list functor. Using types instead of setoids, as it is common in homotopy type theory, one can specify the finite powerset datatype as a higher inductive type and define its final coalgebra as a coinductive type. Another construction is obtained by quotienting the final coalgebra of the list functor, but the proof of finality requires the assumption of the axiom of choice. We conclude the paper with an analysis of a classical construction by James Worrell, and show that its adaptation to our constructive setting requires the presence of classical axioms such as countable choice and the lesser limited principle of omniscience