Bigraphs are graphs whose nodes may be nested, representing locality, independently of the edges connecting them. They may be equipped with reaction rules, forming a bigraphical reactive system (Brs) in which bigraphs can reconfigure themselves. Following an earlier paper describing link graphs, a constituent of bigraphs, this paper is a devoted to pure bigraphs, which in turn underlie various more refined forms. Elsewhere it is shown that behavioural analysis for Petri nets, π-calculus and mobile ambients can all be recovered in the uniform framework of bigraphs. The paper first develops the dynamic theory of an abstract structure, a wide reactive system (Wrs), of which a Brs is an instance. In this context, labelled transitions are defined in such a way that the induced bisimilarity is a congruence. This work is then specialised to Brss, whose graphical structure allows many refinements of the theory. The latter part of the paper emphasizes bigraphical theory that is relevant to the treatment of dynamics via labelled transitions. As a running example, the theory is applied to finite pure CCS, whose resulting transition system and bisimilarity are analysed in detail. The paper also mentions briefly the use of bigraphs to model pervasive computing and

This paper axiomatises the structure of bigraphs, and proves that the resulting theory is complete. Bigraphs are graphs with double structure, representing locality and connectivity. They have been shown to represent dynamic theories for the #-calculus, mobile ambients and Petri nets, in a way that is faithful to each of those models of discrete behaviour. While the main purpose of bigraphs is to understand mobile systems, a prerequisite for this understanding is a well-behaved theory of the structure of states in such systems. The algebra of bigraph structure is surprisingly simple, as the paper demonstrates; this is because bigraphs treat locality and connectivity orthogonally

We axiomatize the congruence relation for binding bigraphs and prove that the generated theory is complete. In doing so, we define a normal form for binding bigraphs, and prove that it is unique up to certain isomorphisms. Our work builds on Milner’s axioms for pure bigraphs. We have extended the set of axioms with five new axioms concerned with binding, and we have altered some of Milner’s axioms for ions, because ions in binding bigraphs have names on both their inner and outer faces. The resulting theory is a conservative extension of Milner’s for pure bigraphs.