In this paper we revisit some pioneering eorts to equip Petri nets with compact operational models for expressing causality. The models we propose have a bisimilarity relation and a minimal representative for each equivalence class, and they can be fully explained as coalgebras on a presheaf category on an index category of partial orders. First, we provide a set-theoretic model in the form of a a causal case graph, that is a labeled transition system where states and transitions represent markings and rings of the net, respectively, and are equipped with causal information. Most importantly, each state has a poset representing causal dependencies among past events. Our rst result shows the correspondence with behavior structure semantics as proposed by Trakhtenbrot and Rabinovich. Causal case graphs may be innitely-branchi ng and have innitely many states, but we show how they can be rened to get an equivalent nitely-branching model. In it, states only keep the most recent causes for each token, are up to isomorphism, and are equipped with a symmetry, i.e., a group of poset isomorphisms. Symmetries are essential for the existence of a minimal, often nite-state, model. This rst part requires no knowledge of category theory. The next step is constructing a coalgebraic model. We exploit the fact that events can be represented as names, and event generation as name generation. Thus we can apply the Fiore-Turi framework, where the semantics of nominal calculi are modeled as coalgebras over presheaves. We model causal relations as a suitable category of posets with action labels, and generation of new events with causal dependencies as an endofunctor on this category. Presheaves indexed by labeled posets represent the functorial association between states and their causal information. Then we dene a well-behaved category of coalgebras. Our coalgebraic model is still innite-state, but we exploit the equivalence between coalgebras over a class of presheaves and History Dependent automata to derive a compact representation, which is equivalent to our set-theoretical compact model. Remarkably, state reduction is automatically performed along the equivalence.
We can cite @cite_8 for the introduction of transitions systems for causality whose states are elements of presheaves, intended to model the causal semantics of the @math -calculus as defined in @cite_9 . However, the index of a state is a set of names, without any information about events and causal relations. The advantage of our index category is that it allows reducing the state-space in an automatic way, exploiting a standard categorical construction. This cannot be done in the framework of @cite_8 . Finally, an HD-automaton for causality has been described in @cite_2 , but it is derived as a direct translation of causal automata and its states do not take into account causal relations.
@cite_9 @cite_2 @cite_8
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In this paper we recast the classical Darondeau---Degano's causal semantics of concurrency in a coalgebraic setting, where we derive a compact model. Our construction is inspired by the one of Montanari and Pistore yielding causal automata, but we show that it is instance of an existing categorical framework for modeling the semantics of nominal calculi, whose relevance is further demonstrated. The key idea is to represent events as names, and the occurrence of a new event as name generation. We model causal semantics as a coalgebra over a presheaf, along the lines of the Fiore---Turi approach to the semantics of nominal calculi. More specifically, we take a suitable category of finite posets, representing causal relations over events, and we equip it with an endofunctor that allocates new events and relates them to their causes. Presheaves over this category express the relationship between processes and causal relations among the processes' events. We use the allocation operator to define a category of well-behaved coalgebras: it models the occurrence of a new event along each transition. Then we turn the causal transition relation into a coalgebra in this category, where labels only exhibit maximal events with respect to the source states' poset, and we show that its bisimilarity is essentially Darondeau---Degano's strong causal bisimilarity. This coalgebra is still infinite-state, but we exploit the equivalence between coalgebras over a class of presheaves and History Dependent automata to derive a compact representation, where states only retain the poset of the most recent events for each atomic subprocess, and are isomorphic up to order-preserving permutations. Remarkably, this reduction of states is automatically performed along the equivalence. In this paper we introduce a model for a wide class of computational systems, whose behaviour can be described by certain rewriting rules. We gathered our inspiration both from the world of term rewriting, in particular from the rewriting logic framework Mes92 , and of concurrency theory: among the others, the structured operational semantics Plo81 , the context systems LX90 and the structured transition systems CM92 approaches. Our model recollects many properties of these sources: first, it provides a compositional way to describe both the states and the sequences of transitions performed by a given system, stressing their distributed nature. Second, a suitable notion of typed proof allows to take into account also those formalisms relying on the notions of synchronization and side-effects to determine the actual behaviour of a system. Finally, an equivalence relation over sequences of transitions is defined, equipping the system under analysis with a concurrent semantics, where each equivalence class denotes a family of computationally equivalent'''' behaviours, intended to correspond to the execution of the same set of (causally unrelated) events. As a further abstraction step, our model is conveniently represented using double-categories: its operational semantics is recovered with a free construction, by means of a suitable adjunction. This paper deals with probabilistic and nondeterministic processes represented by a variant of labeled transition systems where any outgoing transition of a state s is augmented with probabilities for the possible successor states. Our main contributions are algorithms for computing this bisimulation equivalence classes as introduced by Larsen and Skou (1996, Inform. and Comput.99, 1?28), and the simulation preorder a la Segala and Lynch (1995, Nordic J. Comput.2, 250?273). The algorithm for deciding bisimilarity is based on a variant of the traditional partitioning technique and runs in time O(mn(logm+logn)) where m is the number of transitions and n the number of states. The main idea for computing the simulation preorder is the reduction to maximum flow problems in suitable networks. Using the method of Cheriyan, Hagerup, and Mehlhorn, (1990, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 443, pp. 235?248, Springer-Verlag, Berlin) for computing the maximum flow, the algorithm runs in time O((mn6+m2n3) logn). Moreover, we show that the network-based technique is also applicable to compute the simulation-like relation of Jonsson and Larsen (1991, “Proc. LICS'91” pp. 266?277) in fully probabilistic systems (a variant of ordinary labeled transition systems where the nondeterminism is totally resolved by probabilistic choices). We study syntax-free models for name-passing processes. For interleaving semantics, we identify the indexing structure required of an early labelled transition system to support the usual π-calculus operations, defining Indexed Labelled Transition Systems. For non-interleaving causal semantics we define Indexed Labelled Asynchronous Transition Systems, smoothly generalizing both our interleaving model and the standard Asynchronous Transition Systems model for CCS-like calculi. In each case we relate a denotational semantics to an operational view, for bisimulation and causal bisimulation respectively. We establish completeness properties of, and adjunctions between, categories of the two models. Alternative indexing structures and possible applications are also discussed. These are first steps towards a uniform understanding of the semantics and operations of name-passing calculi.