Proofs as Polynomials

By Boolean category we mean something which is to a Boolean algebra what a category is to a poset. We propose an axiomatic system for Boolean categories, which is different in several respects from the ones proposed recently In particular everything is done from the start in a *-autonomous category and not in a weakly distributive one, which simplifies issues like the Mix rule. An important axiom, which is introduced later, is a graphical condition, which is closely related to denotational semantics and the Geometry of Interaction. Then we show that a previously constructed category of proof nets is the free graphical Boolean category in our sense. This validates our categorical axiomatization with respect to a real-life example. Another important aspect of this work is that we do not assume a-priori the existence of units in the *-autonomous categories we use. This has some retroactive interest for the semantics of linear logic, and is motivated by the properties of our example with respect to units.

It is well known that weakening and contraction cause naive categorical models of the classical sequent calculus to collapse to Boolean lattices. In previous work, summarised briefly herein, we have provided a class of models calledclassical categoriesthat is sound and complete and avoids this collapse by interpreting cut reduction by a poset enrichment. Examples of classical categories include boolean lattices and the category of sets and relations, where both conjunction and disjunction are modelled by the set-theoretic product. In this article, which is self-contained, we present an improved axiomatisation of classical categories, together with a deep exploration of their structural theory. Observing that the collapse already happens in the absence of negation, we start with negation-free models calledDummett categories. Examples of these include, besides the classical categories mentioned above, the category of sets and relations, where both conjunction and disjunction are modelled by the disjoint union. We prove that Dummett categories are MIX, and that the partial order can be derived from hom-semilattices, which have a straightforward proof-theoretic definition. Moreover, we show that the Geometry-of-Interaction construction can be extended from multiplicative linear logic to classical logic by applying it to obtain a classical category from a Dummett category.Along the way, we gain detailed insights into the changes that proofs undergo during cut elimination in the presence of weakening and contraction.

We present a full completeness theorem for the multiplicative fragment of a variant of noncommutative linear logic, Yetter'scyclic linear logic(CyLL). The semantics is obtained by interpreting proofs as dinatural transformations on a category of topological vector spaces, these transformations being equivariant under certain actions of a noncocommutative Hopf algebra called theshuffle algebraMultiplicative sequents are assigned a vector space of such dinaturals, and we show that this space has as a basis the denotations of cut-free proofs in CyLL + MIX. This can be viewed as a fully faithful representation of a free *-autonomous category, canonically enriched over vector spaces.This paper is a natural extension of the authors' previous work, “Linear Läuchli Semantics”, where a similar theorem is obtained for the commutative logic MLL + MIX. In that paper, we interpret proofs as dinaturals which are invariant under certain actions of the additive group of integers. Here we also present a simplification of that work by showing that the invariance criterion is actually a consequence of dinaturality. The passage from groups to Hopf algebras in this paper corresponds to the passage from commutative to noncommutative logic. However, in our noncommutative setting, one must still keep the invariance condition on dinaturals.

The correspondence between partial metrics and semivaluations

Constant-only multiplicative linear logic is NP-complete

We prove a full completeness theorem for MLL without the Mix rule. This is done by interpreting a proof as a dinatural transformation in a *-autonomous category of reflexive topological abelian groups first studied by Barr, denoted [Rscr ][Tscr ][Ascr ]. In Section 2, we prove the unique interpretation theorem for a binary provable MLL-sequent. In Section 3, we prove a completeness theorem for binary sequents in MLL without the Mix rule, where we interpret formulas in the category [Rscr ][Tscr ][Ascr ]. The theorem is proved by investigating the concrete structure of [Rscr ][Tscr ][Ascr ], especially that arising from Pontrjagin's work on duality.

We prove full completeness of multiplicative linear logic (MLL) without MIX under the Chu interpretation. In particular we show that the cut-free proofs of MLL theorems are in a natural bijection with the binary logical transformations of the corresponding operations on the category of Chu spaces on a two-letter alphabet.

Encoding Hamiltonian circuits into multiplicative linear logic

The deep inference presentation of multiplicative exponential linear logic (MELL) benefits from a rich combinatoric analysis with many more proofs in comparison to its sequent calculus presentation. In the deep inference setting, all the sequent calculus proofs are preserved. Moreover, many other proofs become available, and some of these proofs are much shorter. However, proof search in deep inference is subject to a greater nondeterminism, and this nondeterminism constitutes a bottleneck for applications. To this end, we address the problem of reducing nondeterminism in MELL by refining and extending our technique that has been previously applied to multiplicative linear logic and classical logic. We show that, besides the nondeterminism in commutative contexts, the nondeterminism in exponential contexts can be reduced in a proof theoretically clean manner. The method conserves the exponential speed-up in proof construction due to deep inference, exemplified by Statman tautologies. We validate the improvement in accessing the shorter proofs by experiments with our implementations.

We give a general proof-theoretic method for proving Craig interpolation for displayable logics, based on an analysis of the individual proof rules of their display calculi. Using this uniform method, we prove interpolation for a spectrum of display calculi differing in their structural rules, including those for multiplicative linear logic, multiplicative additive linear logic and ordinary classical logic. Our analysis of proof rules also provides new insights into why interpolation fails, or seems likely to fail, in many substructural logics. Specifically, contraction appears particularly problematic for interpolation except in special circumstances.

We propose a notion of symmetric reduction for a system of proof-nets for Multiplicative Affine Logic with Mix (MAL + Mix) (namely, multiplicative linear logic with the mix-rule the unrestricted weakening-rule). We prove that such a reduction has the strong normalization and Church-Rosser properties. A notion of irrelevance in a proof-net is defined and the possibility of cancelling the irrelevant parts of a proof-net without erasing the entire net is taken as one of the correctness conditions; therefore purely local cut-reductions are given, minimizing cancellation and suggesting a paradigm of computation without garbage collection. Reconsidering Ketonen and Weyhranch's decision procedure for affine logic [15, 4], the use of the mix-rule is related to the non-determinism of classical proof-theory. The question arises, whether these features of classical cut-elimination are really irreducible to the familiar paradigm of cut-elimination for intuitionistic and linear logic.

Pomset logic introduced by Retor\'e is an extension of linear logic with a self-dual noncommutative connective. The logic is defined by means of proof-nets, rather than a sequent calculus. Later a deep inference system BV was developed with an eye to capturing Pomset logic, but equivalence of system has not been proven up to now. As for a sequent calculus formulation, it has not been known for either of these logics, and there are convincing arguments that such a sequent calculus in the usual sense simply does not exist for them. In an on-going work on semantics we discovered a system similar to Pomset logic, where a noncommutative connective is no longer self-dual. Pomset logic appears as a degeneration, when the class of models is restricted. Motivated by these semantic considerations, we define in the current work a semicommutative multiplicative linear logic}, which is multiplicative linear logic extended with two nonisomorphic noncommutative connectives (not to be confused with very different Abrusci-Ruet noncommutative logic). We develop a syntax of proof-nets and show how this logic degenerates to Pomset logic. However, a more interesting problem than just finding yet another noncommutative logic is to find a sequent calculus for this logic. We introduce decorated sequents, which are sequents equipped with an extra structure of a binary relation of reachability on formulas. We define a decorated sequent calculus for semicommutative logic and prove that it is cut-free, sound and complete. This is adapted to "degenerate" variations, including Pomset logic. Thus, in particular, we give a variant of sequent calculus formulation for Pomset logic, which is one of the key results of the paper.

We consider the following decision problems:ProofNet: Is a given multiplicative linear logic (MLL) proof structure a proof net?EssNet: Is a given essential net (of an intuitionistic MLL sequent) correct?In this article we show how to obtain linear-time algorithms for EssNet. As a corollary, by showing that ProofNet is linear-time reducible to EssNet (by the Trip Translation), we obtain a linear-time algorithm for ProofNet.We show further that it is possible to optimize the verification so that each node of the input structure is visited at most once. Finally, we present linear-time algorithms for sequentializing proof nets and essential nets, that is, for finding derivations of the underlying sequents.

Subexponential logic is a variant of linear logic with a family of exponential connectives – called subexponentials – that are indexed and arranged in a pre-order. Each subexponential has or lacks associated structural properties of weakening and contraction. We show that a classical propositional multiplicative subexponential logic (MSEL) with one unrestricted and two linear subexponentials can encode the halting problem for two register Minsky machines, and is hence undecidable. We then show how the additive connectives can be directly simulated by giving an encoding of propositional multiplicative additive linear logic (MALL) in an MSEL with one unrestricted and four linear subexponentials.

Proof nets provide permutation-independent representations of proofs and are used to investigate coherence problems for monoidal categories. We investigate a coherence problem concerning Second Order Multiplicative Linear Logic (MLL2), that is, the one of characterizing the equivalence over proofs generated by the interpretation of quantifiers by means of ends and coends. We provide a compact representation of proof nets for a fragment of MLL2 related to the Yoneda isomorphism. By adapting the "rewiring approach" used in coherence results for star-autonomous categories, we define an equivalence relation over proof nets called "re-witnessing". We prove that this relation characterizes, in this fragment, the equivalence generated by coends.