A bisimulation for type abstraction and recursion

Eijiro Sumii, Benjamin C. Pierce

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a sound, complete, and elementary proof method, based on bisimulation, for contextual equivalence in a λ-calculus with full universal, existential, and recursive types. Unlike logical relations (either semantic or syntactic), our development is elementary, using only sets and relations and avoiding advanced machinery such as domain theory, admissibility, and TT-closure. Unlike other bisimulations, ours is complete even for existential types. The key idea is to consider sets of relations - instead of just relations - as bisimulations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)63-74
Number of pages12
JournalACM SIGPLAN Notices
Volume40
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005 Jan

Keywords

  • Bisimulations
  • Contextual Equivalence
  • Existential Types
  • Lambda-Calculus
  • Logical Relations
  • Recursive Types

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