Miguel Palomino

Equational abstractions

Abstraction reduces the problem of whether an infinite state system satisfies a temporal logic property to model checking that property on a finite state abstract version. The most common abstractions are quotients of the original system. We present a simple method of defining quotient abstractions by means of equations collapsing the set of states. Our method yields the minimal quotient system together with a set of proof obligations that guarantee its executability and can be discharged with tools such as those in the Maude formal environment.

Reflection in membership equational logic, many-sorted equational logic, Horn logic with equality, and rewriting logic

We show that the generalized variant of formal systems where the underlying equational specifications are membership equational theories, and where the rules are conditional and can have equations, memberships and rewrites in the conditions is reflective. We also show that membership equational logic, many-sorted equational logic, and Horn logic with equality are likewise reflective. These results provide logical foundations for reflective languages and tools based on these logics.

Theoroidal maps as algebraic simulations

Computational systems are often represented by means of Kripke structures, and related using simulations. We propose rewriting logic as a flexible and executable framework in which to formally specify these mathematical models, and introduce a particular and elegant way of representing simulations in it: theoroidal maps. A categorical viewpoint is very natural in the study of these structures and we show how to organize Kripke structures in categories that afterwards are lifted to the rewriting logics level. We illustrate the use of theoroidal maps with two applications: predicate abstraction and the study of fairness constraints.

Ready to preorder: an algebraic and general proof

There have been quite a few proposals for behavioural equivalences for concurrent processes, and many of them are presented in Van Glabbeek’s linear time-branching time spectrum. Since their original definitions are based on rather different ideas, proving general properties of them all would seem to require a case-by-case study. However, the use of their axiomatizations allows a uniform treatment that might produce general proofs of those properties. Recently Aceto, Fokkink and Ingolfsdottir have presented a very interesting result: for any process preorder coarser than the ready simulation in the linear time-branching time spectrum they show how to get an axiomatization of the induced equivalence. Unfortunately, their proof is not uniform and requires a case-by-case analysis. Following the algebraic approach suggested above, in this paper we present a much simpler proof of that result which, in addition, is more general and totally uniform, so that it does not need to consider one by one the different semantics in the spectrum.

On the Unification of Process Semantics: Equational Semantics

The complexity of parallel systems has produced a large collection of semantics for processes, a classification of which is provided by Van Glabbeeks linear time-branching time spectrum; however, no suitable unified definitions were available. We have discovered the way to unify them, both in an observational framework and by means of a quite small set of parameterized (in)equations that provide a sound and complete axiomatization of the preorders that define them. In more detail, we have proved that we only need a generic simulation axiom (NS), which defines the family of constrained simulation semantics, thus covering the class of branching time semantics, and a generic axiom (ND) for reducing the non-determinism of processes, by means of which we introduce the additional identifications induced by each of the linear time semantics.

Reflection in Membership Equational Logic, Many-Sorted Equational Logic, Horn Logic with Equality, and Rewriting Logic

Abstract We show that the generalized variant of rewriting logic where the underlying equational specifications are membership equational theories, and where the rules are conditional and can have equations, memberships and rewrites in the conditions is reflective. We also show that membership equational logic, many-sorted equational logic, and Horn logic with equality are likewise reflective. These results provide logical foundations for reflective languages and tools based on these logics, and in particular for the Maude language itself.

Rewriting logic bibliography by topic: 1990–2011

Abstract This bibliography compiles, to the best of our knowledge, all the papers on rewriting logic and its applications which have been written during the more than 20 years that have passed since the introduction of rewriting logic in 1990. The papers are classified according to five main areas: foundations, logical and semantic framework, languages, tools, and applications.

Logics for contravariant simulations

Covariant-contravariant simulation and conformance simulation are two generalizations of the simple notion of simulation which aim at capturing the fact that it is not always the case that “the larger the number of behaviors, the better”. Therefore, they can be considered to be more adequate to express the fact that a system is a correct implementation of some specification. We have previously shown that these two more elaborated notions fit well within the categorical framework developed to study the notion of simulation in a generic way. Now we show that their behaviors have also simple and natural logical characterizations, though more elaborated than those for the plain simulation semantics.

A categorical approach to simulations

Simulations are a very natural way of relating concurrent systems, which are mathematically modeled by Kripke structures. The range of available notions of simulations makes it very natural to adopt a categorical viewpoint in which Kripke structures become the objects of several categories while the morphisms are obtained from the corresponding notion of simulation. Here we define in detail several of those categories, collect them together in various institutions, and study their most interesting properties.

A Tutorial on Specifying Data Structures in Maude

This tutorial describes the equational specification of a series of typical data structures in Maude. We start with the well-known stacks, queues, and lists, to continue with binary and search trees. Not only are the simple versions considered but also advanced ones such as AVL and 2-3-4 trees. The operator attributes available in Maude allow the specification of data based on constructors that satisfy some equational properties, like concatenation of lists which is associative and has the empty list as identity, as opposed to the free constructors available in other functional programming languages. Moreover, the expressive version of equational logic in which Maude is based, namely membership equational logic, allows the faithful specification of types whose data are defined not only by means of constructors, but also by the satisfaction of additional properties, like sorted lists or search trees. In the second part of the paper we describe the use of an inductive theorem prover, the ITP, which itself is developed and integrated in Maude by means of the powerful metalevel and metalanguage features offered by the latter, to prove properties of the data structures. This is work in progress because the ITP is still under development and, as soon as the data gets a bit complex, the proof of their properties gets even more complex.