Abstract not found

We present a generic method for establishing interpolation properties by ‘borrowing ’ across logical systems. The framework used is that of the so-caled ‘institution theory ’ which is a categorical abstract model theory providing a formal definition for the informal concept of ‘logical system ’ and a mathematical concept of ‘homomorphism ’ between logical systems. We develop three different styles or patterns to apply the proposed borrowing interpolation method. These three ways are illustrated by the development of a series of concrete interpolation results for logical systems that are used in mathematical logic or in computing science, most of these interpolation properties apparently being new results. These logical systems include fragments of (classical many sorted) first order logic with equality, preordered algebra and its Horn fragment, partial algebra, higher order logic. Applications are also expected for many other logical systems, including membership algebra, various types of order sorted algebra, the logic of predefined types, etc., and various combinations of the logical systems discussed here. 1.

Abstract. The powerset construction is a standard method for converting a nondeterministic automaton into a deterministic one recognizing the same language. In this paper, we lift the powerset construction from automata to the more general framework of coalgebras with structured state spaces. Coalgebra is an abstract framework for the uniform study of different kinds of dynamical systems. An endofunctor F determines both the type of systems (F-coalgebras) and a notion of behavioural equivalence (∼F) amongst them. Many types of transition systems and their equivalences can be captured by a functor F. For example, for deterministic automata the derived equivalence is language equivalence, while for non-deterministic automata it is ordinary bisimilarity. We give several examples of applications of our generalized determinization construction, including partial Mealy machines, (structured) Moore automata, Rabin probabilistic automata, and, somewhat surprisingly, even pushdown automata. To further witness the generality of the approach we show how to characterize coalgebraically several equivalences which have been object of interest in the concurrency community, such as failure or ready