Dual-Context Calculi for Modal Logic

We present natural deduction systems and associated modal lambda calculi for the necessity fragments of the normal modal logics K, T, K4, GL and S4. These systems are in the dual-context style: they feature two distinct zones of assumptions, one of which can be thought as modal, and the other as intuitionistic. We show that these calculi have their roots in in sequent calculi. We then investigate their metatheory, equip them with a confluent and strongly normalizing notion of reduction, and show that they coincide with the usual Hilbert systems up to provability. Finally, we investigate a categorical semantics which interprets the modality as a product-preserving functor.Comment: Full version of article previously presented at LICS 2017 (see arXiv:1602.04860v4 or doi: 10.1109/LICS.2017.8005089

A Theory of Explicit Substitutions with Safe and Full Composition

Many different systems with explicit substitutions have been proposed to implement a large class of higher-order languages. Motivations and challenges that guided the development of such calculi in functional frameworks are surveyed in the first part of this paper. Then, very simple technology in named variable-style notation is used to establish a theory of explicit substitutions for the lambda-calculus which enjoys a whole set of useful properties such as full composition, simulation of one-step beta-reduction, preservation of beta-strong normalisation, strong normalisation of typed terms and confluence on metaterms. Normalisation of related calculi is also discussed.Comment: 29 pages Special Issue: Selected Papers of the Conference "International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming 2008" edited by Giuseppe Castagna and Igor Walukiewic

Higher-Order Termination: from Kruskal to Computability

Termination is a major question in both logic and computer science. In logic, termination is at the heart of proof theory where it is usually called strong normalization (of cut elimination). In computer science, termination has always been an important issue for showing programs correct. In the early days of logic, strong normalization was usually shown by assigning ordinals to expressions in such a way that eliminating a cut would yield an expression with a smaller ordinal. In the early days of verification, computer scientists used similar ideas, interpreting the arguments of a program call by a natural number, such as their size. Showing the size of the arguments to decrease for each recursive call gives a termination proof of the program, which is however rather weak since it can only yield quite small ordinals. In the sixties, Tait invented a new method for showing cut elimination of natural deduction, based on a predicate over the set of terms, such that the membership of an expression to the predicate implied the strong normalization property for that expression. The predicate being defined by induction on types, or even as a fixpoint, this method could yield much larger ordinals. Later generalized by Girard under the name of reducibility or computability candidates, it showed very effective in proving the strong normalization property of typed lambda-calculi..

Delayed substitutions

This paper investigates an approach to substitution alternative to the implicit treatment of the $\lambda$-calculus and the explicit treatment of explicit substitution calculi. In this approach, substitutions are delayed (but not executed) explicitly. We implement this idea with two calculi, one where substitution is a primitive construction of the calculus, the other where substitutions is represented by a $\beta$-redex. For both calculi, confluence and (preservation of) strong normalisation are proved (the latter fails for a related system due to Revesz, as we show). Applications of delayed substitutions are of theoretical nature. The strong normalisation result implies strong normalisation for other calculi, like the computational lambda-calculus, lambda-calculi with generalised applications, or calculi of cut-elimination for sequent calculus. We give an investigation of the computational interpretation of cut-elimination in terms of generation, execution, and delaying of substitutions, paying particular attention to how generalised applications improve such interpretation

New Equations for Neutral Terms: A Sound and Complete Decision Procedure, Formalized

The definitional equality of an intensional type theory is its test of type compatibility. Today's systems rely on ordinary evaluation semantics to compare expressions in types, frustrating users with type errors arising when evaluation fails to identify two `obviously' equal terms. If only the machine could decide a richer theory! We propose a way to decide theories which supplement evaluation with `$\nu$-rules', rearranging the neutral parts of normal forms, and report a successful initial experiment. We study a simple -calculus with primitive fold, map and append operations on lists and develop in Agda a sound and complete decision procedure for an equational theory enriched with monoid, functor and fusion laws

Comparing Calculi of Explicit Substitutions with Eta-reduction1 1Partially supported by the Brazilian CNPq research council grant number 47488101-6.

AbstractThe past decade has seen an explosion of work on calculi of explicit substitutions. Numerous work has illustrated the usefulness of these calculi for practical notions like the implementation of typed functional programming languages and higher order proof assistants. Three styles of explicit substitutions are treated in this paper: the λσ and the λse which have proved useful for solving practical problems like higher order unification, and the suspension calculus related to the implementation of the language λ-Prolog. We enlarge the suspension calculus with an adequate eta-reduction which we show to preserve termination and confluence of the associated substitution calculus and to correspond to the eta-reductions of the other two calculi. Additionally, we prove that λσ and λse as well as λσ and the suspension calculus are non comparable while λse is more adequate than the suspension calculus

Resource control and strong normalisation

We introduce the \emph{resource control cube}, a system consisting of eight intuitionistic lambda calculi with either implicit or explicit control of resources and with either natural deduction or sequent calculus. The four calculi of the cube that correspond to natural deduction have been proposed by Kesner and Renaud and the four calculi that correspond to sequent lambda calculi are introduced in this paper. The presentation is parameterized with the set of resources (weakening or contraction), which enables a uniform treatment of the eight calculi of the cube. The simply typed resource control cube, on the one hand, expands the Curry-Howard correspondence to intuitionistic natural deduction and intuitionistic sequent logic with implicit or explicit structural rules and, on the other hand, is related to substructural logics. We propose a general intersection type system for the resource control cube calculi. Our main contribution is a characterisation of strong normalisation of reductions in this cube. First, we prove that typeability implies strong normalisation in the ''natural deduction base" of the cube by adapting the reducibility method. We then prove that typeability implies strong normalisation in the ''sequent base" of the cube by using a combination of well-orders and a suitable embedding in the ''natural deduction base". Finally, we prove that strong normalisation implies typeability in the cube using head subject expansion. All proofs are general and can be made specific to each calculus of the cube by instantiating the set of resources

Normalization by Evaluation in the Delay Monad: A Case Study for Coinduction via Copatterns and Sized Types

In this paper, we present an Agda formalization of a normalizer for simply-typed lambda terms. The normalizer consists of two coinductively defined functions in the delay monad: One is a standard evaluator of lambda terms to closures, the other a type-directed reifier from values to eta-long beta-normal forms. Their composition, normalization-by-evaluation, is shown to be a total function a posteriori, using a standard logical-relations argument. The successful formalization serves as a proof-of-concept for coinductive programming and reasoning using sized types and copatterns, a new and presently experimental feature of Agda.Comment: In Proceedings MSFP 2014, arXiv:1406.153