Is there any Cartesian-closed category of continuous domains that would be closed under Jones and Plotkin's probabilistic powerdomain construction? This is a major open problem in the area of denotational semantics of probabilistic higher-order languages. We relax the question, and look for quasi-continuous dcpos instead. We introduce a natural class of such quasi-continuous dcpos, the omega-QRB-domains. We show that they form a category omega-QRB with pleasing properties: omega-QRB is closed under the probabilistic powerdomain functor, under finite products, under taking bilimits of expanding sequences, under retracts, and even under so-called quasi-retracts. But... omega-QRB is not Cartesian closed. We conclude by showing that the QRB domains are just one half of an FS-domain, merely lacking control.
We propose compactly generated monotone convergence spaces as a well-behaved topological generalisation of directed-complete partial orders (dcpos). The category of such spaces enjoys the usual properties of categories of ‘predomains’ in denotational semantics. Moreover, such properties are retained if one restricts to spaces with a countable pseudobase in the sense of E. Michael, a fact that permits connections to be made with computability theory, realizability semantics and recent work on the closure properties of topological quotients of countably based spaces (qcb spaces). We compare the standard domain-theoretic constructions of products and function spaces on dcpos with their compactly generated counterparts, showing that these agree in important cases, though not in general. We motivate and define a category of topological domains, whose objects are certain topological spaces, generalising the usual @w-continuous dcppos of domain theory. Our category supports all the standard constructions of domain theory, including the solution of recursive domain equations. It also supports the construction of free algebras for (in)equational theories, can be used as the basis for a theory of computability, and provides a model of parametric polymorphism. We present two probabilistic powerdomain constructions in topological domain theory. The first is given by a free ”convex space” construction, fitting into the theory of modelling computational effects via free algebras for equational theories, as proposed by Plotkin and Power. The second is given by an observationally induced approach, following Schroder and Simpson. We show the two constructions coincide when restricted to ω-continuous dcppos, in which case they yield the space of (continuous) probability valuations equipped with the Scott topology. Thus either construction generalises the classical domain-theoretic probabilistic powerdomain. On more general spaces, the constructions differ, and the second seems preferable. Indeed, for countably-based spaces, we characterise the observationally induced powerdomain as the space of probability valuations with weak topology. However, we show that such a characterisation does not extend to non countablybased spaces.