On the axiomatizability of impossible futures

A general method is established to derive a ground-complete axiomatization for a weak semantics from such an axiomatization for its concrete counterpart, in the context of the process algebra BCCS. This transformation moreover preserves omega-completeness. It is applicable to semantics at least as coarse as impossible futures semantics. As an application, ground- and omega-complete axiomatizations are derived for weak failures, completed trace and trace semantics. We then present a finite, sound, ground-complete axiomatization for the concrete impossible futures preorder, which implies a finite, sound, ground-complete axiomatization for the weak impossible futures preorder. In contrast, we prove that no finite, sound axiomatization for BCCS modulo concrete and weak impossible futures equivalence is ground-complete. If the alphabet of actions is infinite, then the aforementioned ground-complete axiomatizations are shown to be omega-complete. If the alphabet is finite, we prove that the inequational theories of BCCS modulo the concrete and weak impossible futures preorder lack such a finite basis

A Cook’s Tour of Equational Axiomatizations for Prefix Iteration

Prefix iteration is a variation on the original binary version of theKleene star operation P*Q, obtained by restricting the first argument to be an atomic action, and yields simple iterative behaviours that can be equationally characterized by means of finite collections of axioms. In this paper, we present axiomatic characterizations for a significant fragment of the notions of equivalence and preorder in van Glabbeek's linear-time/branching-time spectrum over Milner's basic CCS extended with prefix iteration. More precisely, we consider ready simulation, simulation, readiness, trace and language semantics, and provide complete (in)equational axiomatizations for each of these notions over BCCS with prefix iteration. All of the axiom systems we present are finite, if so is the set of atomic actions under consideration

Equational Characterization of Covariant-Contravariant Simulation and Conformance Simulation Semantics

Covariant-contravariant simulation and conformance simulation generalize plain simulation and try to capture the fact that it is not always the case that "the larger the number of behaviors, the better". We have previously studied their logical characterizations and in this paper we present the axiomatizations of the preorders defined by the new simulation relations and their induced equivalences. The interest of our results lies in the fact that the axiomatizations help us to know the new simulations better, understanding in particular the role of the contravariant characteristics and their interplay with the covariant ones; moreover, the axiomatizations provide us with a powerful tool to (algebraically) prove results of the corresponding semantics. But we also consider our results interesting from a metatheoretical point of view: the fact that the covariant-contravariant simulation equivalence is indeed ground axiomatizable when there is no action that exhibits both a covariant and a contravariant behaviour, but becomes non-axiomatizable whenever we have together actions of that kind and either covariant or contravariant actions, offers us a new subtle example of the narrow border separating axiomatizable and non-axiomatizable semantics. We expect that by studying these examples we will be able to develop a general theory separating axiomatizable and non-axiomatizable semantics.Comment: In Proceedings SOS 2010, arXiv:1008.190

Meta SOS - A Maude Based SOS Meta-Theory Framework

Meta SOS is a software framework designed to integrate the results from the meta-theory of structural operational semantics (SOS). These results include deriving semantic properties of language constructs just by syntactically analyzing their rule-based definition, as well as automatically deriving sound and ground-complete axiomatizations for languages, when considering a notion of behavioural equivalence. This paper describes the Meta SOS framework by blending aspects from the meta-theory of SOS, details on their implementation in Maude, and running examples.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2013, arXiv:1307.690

Theoretical Aspects of Computing (ICTAC 2011)

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Revisiting logical semantics for processes and their distances

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos y Computación, leída el 2-02-2016Esta tesis se enmarca en el amplio campo de la teoría de la concurrencia. Más específicamente, nos centramos en el estudio de las relaciones de similitud entre procesos concurrentes. Comenzamos estudiando la bisimulación, considerada la más importante de estas relaciones, y vemos después cómo podemos extender nuestros resultados al resto de las semánticas de procesos estudiadas durante las últimas décadas. En particular, nuestra contribución a la comunidad científica, se centra en dos puntos principales: – El desarrollo de una caracterización lógica uniforme de las semánticas de procesos: proponemos un esquema lógico común (enmarcado en la conocida lógica modal de Hennessy-Milner) e incluimos las diferentes semánticas en este esquema, enfatizando las diferencias y similitudes entre ellas, que se presentan del modo más claro posible. – La presentación de una nueva noción de distancia, tanto entre procesos finitos como infinitos: la misma se diferencia de las anteriormente propuestas en su carácter global, que acumula las diferencias que aportan los distintos cómputos, en lugar de quedarnos con la máxima de ellas...This thesis can be included in the broad field of concurrency theory. More specifically, we focus on the study of the similarities between concurrent processes. We start from bisimulation, the main of these relations, and then we see how we can extend the obtained results to the rest of the semantics developed along the last years. In particular, our main contributions can be roughly described by the following two items: – The development of a unified logical characterization of process semantics: we propose a common logical scheme (within the framework of the well known Hennessy-Milner Logic) and we set the different semantics in this scheme by emphasizing, in the clearest possible way, the (dis)similarities between them. – We present a new notion of distance for both finite and infinite processes. This novel notion differs from the previously available ones in its global character: instead of taking the maximum disagreement between the two compared processes, it adds all the differences provided by their whole sets of computations...Depto. de Sistemas Informáticos y ComputaciónFac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

On the Axiomatisation of Branching Bisimulation Congruence over CCS

In this paper we investigate the equational theory of (the restriction, relabelling, and recursion free fragment of) CCS modulo rooted branching bisimilarity, which is a classic, bisimulation-based notion of equivalence that abstracts from internal computational steps in process behaviour. Firstly, we show that CCS is not finitely based modulo the considered congruence. As a key step of independent interest in the proof of that negative result, we prove that each CCS process has a unique parallel decomposition into indecomposable processes modulo branching bisimilarity. As a second main contribution, we show that, when the set of actions is finite, rooted branching bisimilarity has a finite equational basis over CCS enriched with the left merge and communication merge operators from ACP

Syntactic approaches to negative results in process algebras and modal logics

Concurrency as a phenomenon is observed in most of the current computer science trends. However the inherent complexity of analyzing the behavior of such a system is incremented due to the many different models of concurrency, the variety of applications and architectures, as well as the wide spectrum of specification languages and demanded correctness criteria. For the scope of this thesis we focus on state based models of concurrent computation, and on modal logics as specification languages. First we study syntactically the process algebras that describe several different concurrent behaviors, by analyzing their equational theories. Here, we use well-established techniques from the equational logic of processes to older and newer setups, and then transition to the use of more general and novel methods for the syntactical analysis of models of concurrent programs and specification languages. Our main contributions are several positive and negative axiomatizability results over various process algebraic languages and equivalences, along with some complexity results over the satisfiability of multi-agent modal logic with recursion, as a specification language.Samhliða sem fyrirbæri sést í flestum núverandi tölvunarfræði stefnur. Hins vegar er eðlislægt flókið að greina hegðun slíks kerfis- tem er aukið vegna margra mismunandi gerða samhliða, fjölbreytileikans af forritum og arkitektúr, svo og breitt svið forskrifta mælikvarða og kröfðust réttmætisviðmiða. Fyrir umfang þessarar ritgerðar leggjum við áherslu á ástandsbundin líkön af samhliða útreikningum og á formlegum rökfræði sem forskrift tungumálum. Fyrst skoðum við setningafræðilega ferlialgebrurnar sem lýsa nokkrum mismunandi samhliða hegðun, með því að greina jöfnukenningar þeirra. Hér notum við rótgróin tækni mynda jöfnunarrökfræði ferla til eldri og nýrri uppsetningar, og síðan umskipti yfir í notkun almennari og nýrra aðferða fyrir setningafræðileg greining á líkönum samhliða forrita og forskriftartungumála. Helstu framlög okkar eru nokkrar jákvæðar og neikvæðar niðurstöður um axiomatizability yfir ýmis ferli algebrumál og jafngildi, ásamt nokkrum samSveigjanleiki leiðir af því að fullnægjanleiki fjölþátta formrökfræði með endurkomu, sem a forskrift tungumál.RANNIS: `Open Problems in the Equational Logic of Processes’ (OPEL) (grant No 196050-051) Reykjavik University research fund: `Runtime and Equational Verification of Concurrent Programs' (ReVoCoP) (grant No 222021

(Bi)Simulations Up-to Characterise Process Semantics

We define (bi)simulations up-to a preorder and show how we can use them to provide a coinductive, (bi)simulation-like, characterisation of semantic (equivalences) preorders for processes. In particular, we can apply our results to all the semantics in the linear time-branching time spectrum that are defined by preorders coarser than the ready simulation preorder. The relation between bisimulations up-to and simulations up-to allows us to find some new relations between the equivalences that define the semantics and the corresponding preorders. In particular, we have shown that the simulation up-to an equivalence relation is a canonical preorder whose kernel is the given equivalence relation. Since all of these canonical preorders are defined in an homogeneous way, we can prove properties for them in a generic way. As an illustrative example of this technique, we generate an axiomatic characterisation of each of these canonical preorders, that is obtained simply by adding a single axiom to the axiomatization of the original equivalence relation. Thus we provide an alternative axiomatization for any axiomatizable preorder in the linear time-branching time spectrum, whose correctness and completeness can be proved once and for all. Although we first prove, by induction, our results for finite processes, then we see, by using continuity arguments, that they are also valid for infinite (finitary) processes