In this paper we consider the problem of identifying logic programming languages for linear logic. Our analysis builds on a notion of goal-directed provability, characterized by the so-called uniform proofs, previously introduced for minimal and intuitionistic logic. A class of uniform proofs in linear logic is identified by an analysis of the permutability of inferences in the linear sequent calculus. We show that this class of proofs is complete (for logical consequence) for a certain (quite large) fragment of linear logic, which thus forms a logic programming language. We obtain a notion of resolution proof, in which only one left rule, of clause-directed resolution, is required. We also consider a translation, resembling those of Girard, of the hereditary Harrop fragment of intuitionistic logic into our framework. We show that goal-directed provability is preserved under this translation. 1 Introduction An interesting recent development in logic of some significance for theoretica...

The Concurrent Logical Framework, or CLF, is a new logical framework in which concurrent computations can be represented as monadic objects, for which there is an intrinsic notion of concurrency. It is designed as a conservative extension of the linear logical framework LLF with the synchronous connectives# of intuitionistic linear logic, encapsulated in a monad. LLF is itself a conservative extension of LF with the asynchronous connectives -#, & and #.

In order to reason about specifications of computations that are given via the proof search or logic programming paradigm one needs to have at least some forms of induction and some principle for reasoning about the ways in which terms are built and the ways in which computations can progress. The literature contains many approaches to formally adding these reasoning principles with logic specifications. We choose an approach based on the sequent calculus and design an intuitionistic logic F Oλ ∆IN that includes natural number induction and a notion of definition. We have detailed elsewhere that this logic has a number of applications. In this paper we prove the cut-elimination theorem for F Oλ ∆IN, adapting a technique due to Tait and Martin-Löf. This cut-elimination proof is technically interesting and significantly extends previous results of this kind. 1

An overview of linear logic is given, including an extensive bibliography and a simple example of the close relationship between linear logic and computation.

The design of linear logic programming languages and theorem provers opens a number of new implementation challenges not present in more traditional logic languages such as Horn clauses (Prolog) and hereditary Harrop formulas (λProlog and Elf). Among these, the problem of efficiently managing the linear context when solving a goal is of crucial importance for the use of these systems in non-trivial applications. This paper studies this problem in the case of Lolli [HM94], though its results have application to other systems. We first give a prooftheoretic presentation of the operational semantics of this language as a resolution calculus. We then present a series of resource management systems designed to eliminate the nondeterminism in the distribution of linear formulas that undermines the efficiency of a direct implementation of this system. 1

We propose a novel concurrent programming framework called ACL. ACL is a variant of linear logic programming, where computation is described in terms of bottom-up proof search of some formula in linear logic. The whole linear sequent calculus is too non-deterministic to be interpreted as an operational semantics for a realistic programming language. We restrict formulas and accordingly refine inference rules for those formulas, hence overcoming this problem. Don't care interpretation of non-determinism in the resulting system yields a very clean and powerful concurrent programming paradigm based on message-passing style communication. It is remarkable that each ACL inference rule has an exact correspondence to some operation in concurrent computation and that non-determinism in proof search just corresponds to an inherent non-determinism in concurrent computation, namely, non-determinism on message arrival order. We demonstrate the power of our ACL framework by showing several programm...

We introduce the calculus of structures: it is more general than the sequent calculus and it allows for cut elimination and the subformula property. We show a simple extension of multiplicative linear logic, by a self-dual non-commutative operator inspired by CCS, that seems not to be expressible in the sequent calculus. Then we show that multiplicative exponential linear logic benefits from its presentation in the calculus of structures, especially because we can replace the ordinary, global promotion rule by a local version. These formal systems, for which we prove cut elimination, outline a range of techniques and properties that were not previously available. Contrarily to what happens in the sequent calculus, the cut elimination proof is modular.

) James Harland Department of Computer Science University of Melbourne Parkville, 3052 Australia jah@cs.mu.oz.au David Pym Department of Computer Science University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH9 3JZ Scotland, U.K. dpym@lfcs.ed.ac.uk Abstract We present a proof-theoretic analysis of a natural notion of logic programming for Girard's linear logic. This analysis enables us to identify a suitable notion of uniform proof. This in turn enables us to identify choices of classes of definite and goal formulae for which uniform proofs are complete and so to obtain the appropriate formulation of resolution proof for such choices. Resolution proofs in linear logic are somewhat difficult to define. This difficulty arises from the need to decompose definite formulae into a form suitable for the use of the linear resolution rule, a rule which requires the selected clause to be deleted after use, and from the presence of the modality ! (of course). We consider a translation --- resembling ...

We introduce an abstract form of interobject communication for object-oriented concurrent programming based on the proof theory of Linear Logic, a logic introduced to provide a theoretical basis for the study of concurrency. Such a form of communication, which we call forum-based communication, can be seen as a refinement of blackboard-based communication in terms of a more local notion of resource consumption. Forumbased communication is introduced as part of a new computational model for the object-oriented concurrent programming language LO, presented at last year OOPSLA/ECOOP (1990), which exploits the proof-theory of Linear Logic also to achieve a powerful form of knowledge-sharing.

This paper is an overview of existing applications of Linear Logic (LL) to issues of computation. After a substantial introduction to LL, it discusses the implications of LL to functional programming, logic programming, concurrent and object-oriented programming and some other applications of LL, like semantics of negation in LP, non-monotonic issues in AI planning, etc. Although the overview covers pretty much the state-of-the-art in this area, by necessity many of the works are only mentioned and referenced, but not discussed in any considerable detail. The paper does not presuppose any previous exposition to LL, and is addressed more to computer scientists (probably with a theoretical inclination) than to logicians. The paper contains over 140 references, of which some 80 are about applications of LL. 1 Linear Logic Linear Logic (LL) was introduced in 1987 by Girard [62]. From the very beginning it was recognized as relevant to issues of computation (especially concurrency and stat...