Taylor subsumes Scott, Berry, Kahn and Plotkin

The speculative ambition of replacing the old theory of program approximation based on syntactic continuity with the theory of resource consumption based on Taylor expansion and originating from the differential γ-calculus is nowadays at hand. Using this resource sensitive theory, we provide simple proofs of important results in γ-calculus that are usually demonstrated by exploiting Scott's continuity, Berry's stability or Kahn and Plotkin's sequentiality theory. A paradigmatic example is given by the Perpendicular Lines Lemma for the Böhm tree semantics, which is proved here simply by induction, but relying on the main properties of resource approximants: strong normalization, confluence and linearity

Lattices of equational theories as Church algebras

Abstract. We introduce the class of Church algebras, which is general enough to compass all Boolean algebras, Heyting algebras and rings with unit. Using a new equational characterization of central elements, we prove that Church algebras satisfy a Stone representation theorem. We show that every lattice of equational theories is isomorphic to the congruence lattice of a suitable Church algebra, and we use this property to prove a meta-Stone representation theorem applicable to all varieties

On the Power of Coercion Abstraction

Erasable coercions in System F-eta, also known as retyping functions, are well-typed eta-expansions of the identity. They may change the type of terms without changing their behavior and can thus be erased before reduction. Coercions in F-eta can model subtyping of known types and some displacement of quantifiers, but not subtyping assumptions nor certain forms of delayed type instantiation. We generalize F-eta by allowing abstraction over retyping functions. We follow a general approach where computing with coercions can be seen as computing in the lambda-calculus but keeping track of which parts of terms are coercions. We obtain a language where coercions do not contribute to the reduction but may block it and are thus not erasable. We recover erasable coercions by choosing a weak reduction strategy and restricting coercion abstraction to value-forms or by restricting abstraction to coercions that are polymorphic in their domain or codomain. The latter variant subsumes F-eta, F-sub, and MLF in a unified framework.Les coercions effaçables dans le Système F-eta, aussi connues sous le nom de fonctions de retypage, sont des eta-expansions de l'identité. Elles peuvent changer le type des termes sans en changer leur comportement et peuvent donc être effacées avant la réduction. Les coercions de F-eta peuvent modéliser le sous-typage entre types connus ou le déplacement de quantificateurs, mais elles ne permettent pas certaines formes d'instanciation retardée ni de raisonner sous des hypothèses de sous-typage. Nous généralisons F-eta en introduisant l'abstraction des fonctions de retypage. Nous suivons une approche générale où le calcul avec des coercions peut être vu comme une réduction dans le lambda-calcul gardant trace de la partie des termes qui sont des coercions. Nous obtenons un langage où les coercions ne contribuent pas au calcul, mais peuvent le bloquer et ne sont donc pas effaçables. Nous retrouvons des coercions effaçables en choisissant une stratégie de réduction faible et en restreignant l'abstraction de coercions aux valeurs ou bien en restreignant l'abstraction aux coercions qui sont polymorphes en leur domaine ou en leur codomaine. Cette seconde variante généralise F-eta, MLF et F-sub dans un cadre unifié

Call-by-value non-determinism in a linear logic type discipline

We consider the call-by-value lambda-calculus extended with a may-convergent non-deterministic choice and a must-convergent parallel composition. Inspired by recent works on the relational semantics of linear logic and non-idempotent intersection types, we endow this calculus with a type system based on the so-called Girard's second translation of intuitionistic logic into linear logic. We prove that a term is typable if and only if it is converging, and that its typing tree carries enough information to give a bound on the length of its lazy call-by-value reduction. Moreover, when the typing tree is minimal, such a bound becomes the exact length of the reduction

Boolean like algebras

Using Vaggione’s concept of central element in a double pointed algebra, we introduce the notion of Boolean like variety as a generalization of Boolean algebras to an arbitrary similarity type. Appropriately relaxing the requirement that every element be central in any member of the variety, we obtain the more general class of semi-Boolean like varieties, which still retain many of the pleasing properties of Boolean algebras. We prove that a double pointed variety is discriminator i↵ it is semi-Boolean like, idempotent, and 0-regular. This theorem yields a new Maltsev-style characterization of double pointed discriminator varieties. Moreover, we show that every idempotent semi-Boolean-like variety is term equivalent to a variety of noncommutative Boolean algebras with additional regular operations

Applying Universal Algebra to Lambda Calculus

Contains fulltext : 83381.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

From Lambda Calculus to Universal Algebra and Back

We generalize to universal algebra concepts originating from lambda calculus and programming in order first to prove a new result on the lattice of λ-theories, and second a general theorem of pure universal algebra which can be seen as a meta version of the Stone Representation Theorem. The interest of a systematic study of the lattice λT of λ-theories grows out of several open problems on lambda calculus. For example, the failure of certain lattice identities in λT would imply that the problem of the orderincompleteness of lambda calculus raised by Selinger has a negative answer. In this paper we introduce the class of Church algebras (which includes all Boolean algebras, combinatory algebras, rings with unit and the term algebras of all λ-theories) to model the if-then-else instruction of programming and to extend some properties of Boolean algebras to general universal algebras. The interest of Church algebras is that each has a Boolean algebra of central elements, which play the role of the idempotent elements in rings. Central elements are the key tool to represent any Church algebra as a weak Boolean product of directly indecomposable Church algebras and to prove the meta representation theorem mentioned above. We generalize the notion of easy λ-term and prove that any Church algebra with an “easy set ” of cardinality n admits (at the top) a lattice interval of congruences isomorphic to the free Boolean algebra with n generators. This theorem has the following consequence for λT: for every recursively enumerable λ-theory φ and each n, there is a λ-theory φn ≥ φ such that {ψ: ψ ≥ φn} “is ” the Boolean lattice with 2 n elements. 1