Abstract. Trace semantics has been defined for various kinds of state-based systems, notably with different forms of branching such as non-determinism vs. probability. In this paper we claim to identify one underlying mathematical structure behind these “trace

Abstract. The microcosm principle, advocated by Baez and Dolan and formalized for Lawvere theories lately by three of the authors, has been applied to coalgebras in order to describe compositional behavior systematically. Here we further illustrate the usefulness of the approach by extending it to a many-sorted setting. Then we can show that the coalgebraic component calculi of Barbosa are examples, with compositionality of behavior following from microcosm structure. The algebraic structure on these coalgebraic components corresponds to variants of Hughes’ notion of arrow, introduced to organize computations in functional programming. 1

This paper develops the basics of the theory of involutive categories and shows that such categories provide the natural setting in which to describe involutive monoids. It is shown how categories of Eilenberg-Moore algebras of involutive monads are involutive, with conjugation for modules and vector spaces as special case. The core of the so-called Gelfand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) construction is identified as a bijective correspondence between states on involutive monoids and inner products. This correspondence exists in arbritrary involutive symmetric monoidal categories. 1

Abstract. We propose a rule format that guarantees associativity of binary operators with respect to all notions of behavioral equivalence that are defined in terms of (im)possibility of transitions, e.g., the notions below strong bisimilarity in van Glabbeek’s spectrum. The initial format is a subset of the De Simone format. We show that all trivial generalizations of our format are bound for failure. We further extend the format in a few directions and illustrate its application to several formalisms in the literature. A subset of the format is studied to obtain associativity with respect to graph isomorphism. 1

Abstract. A theory of traces of computations has emerged within the field of coalgebra, via finality in Kleisli categories. In concurrency theory, traces are traditionally obtained from executions, by projecting away states. These traces and executions are sequences and will be called “thin”. The coalgebraic approach gives rise to both “thin ” and “fat” traces/executions, where in the “fat ” case the structure of computations is preserved. This distinction between thin and fat will be introduced first. It is needed for a theory of schedulers in a coalgebraic setting, of which we only present the very basic definitions and results. 1

This paper contributes a feedback operator, in the form of a monoidal trace, to the theory of coalgebraic, state-based modelling of components. The feedback operator on components is shown to satisfy the trace axioms of Joyal, Street and Verity. We employ McCurdy’s tube diagrams, an extension of standard string diagrams for monoidal categories, for representing and manipulating component diagrams. The microcosm principle then yields a canonical “inner” traced monoidal structure on the category of resumptions (elements of final coalgebras / components). This generalises an observation by Abramsky, Haghverdi and Scott.

Abstract. This paper contributes to the theory of coalgebraic, statebased modelling of components via two additions: a feedback operator in the form of a monoidal trace, and a three-dimensional string calculus for representing and manipulating composite component diagrams. The feedback operator on components is shown to satisfy the trace axioms by Joyal, Street and Verity. As a corollary, we appeal to the microcosm principle and derive a canonical traced monoidal structure on the category of resumptions. This generalises an observation by Abramsky, Haghverdi and Scott. 1