We give an axiomatic treatment of fixed-point operators in categories. A notion of iteration operator is defined, embodying the equational properties of iteration theories. We prove a general completeness theorem for iteration operators, relying on a new, purely syntactic characterisation of the free iteration theory. We then show how iteration operators arise in axiomatic domain theory. One result derives them from the existence of sufficiently many bifree algebras (exploiting the universal property Freyd introduced in his notion of algebraic compactness) . Another result shows that, in the presence of a parameterized natural numbers object and an equational lifting monad, any uniform fixed-point operator is necessarily an iteration operator. 1. Introduction Fixed points play a central role in domain theory. Traditionally, one works with a category such as Cppo, the category of !-continuous functions between !-complete pointed partial orders. This possesses a least-fixed-point oper...

Abstract We propose a notion of interval object in a category with finite products, providing a universal property for closed and bounded real line segments. The universal property gives rise to an analogue of primitive recursion for defining computable functions on the interval. We use this to define basic arithmetic operations and to verify equations between them. We test the notion in categories of interest.

Abstract. We compare the definability of total functionals over the reals in two functional-programming approaches to exact real-number datatype of real numbers; and the intensional approach, in which one encodes real numbers using ordinary datatypes. We show that the type hierarchies coincide up to second-order types, and we relate this fact to an analogous comparison of type hierarchies over the external and internal real numbers in Dana Scott’s category of equilogical spaces. We do not know whether similar coincidences hold at third-order types. However, we relate this question to a purely topological conjecture about the Kleene-Kreisel continuous functionals over the natural numbers. Finally, although it is known that, in the extensional approach, parallel primitives are necessary for programming total first-order functions, we demonstrate that, in the intensional approach, such primitives are not needed for second-order types and below. 1

of real-number computation

We propose a notion of interval object in a category with finite products, providing a universal property for closed and bounded real line segments. We test the notion in categories of interest. In the category of sets, any closed and bounded interval of real numbers is an interval object. In the category of topological spaces, the interval objects are closed and bounded intervals with the Euclidean topology. We also prove that an interval object exists in any elementary topos with natural numbers object. The universal property of an interval object provides a mechanism for defining functions on the interval. We use this to define basic arithmetic operations, and to verify equations between them. It also allows us to develop an analogue of the primitive recursive functions, yielding a natural class of computable functions on the interval. Contents 1

We show that, in a fairly general setting including higher-types, may, must and probabilistic testing are semidecidable. The case of must testing is perhaps surprising, as its mathematical definition involves universal quantification over the infinity of possible outcomes of a non-deterministic program. The other two involve existential quantification and integration. We also perform first steps towards the semi-decidability of similar tests under the simultaneous presence of non-deterministic and probabilistic choice. Keywords: Non-deterministic and probabilistic computation, higher-type computability theory and exhaustible sets, may and must testing, operational and denotational semantics, powerdomains. 1