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Graphical representation of covariant-contravariant modal formulae

2011/08/23 by Luca Aceto, Ignacio Fábregas, David de Frutos-Escrig +2
Computer Science · #cs.LO

paper · pdf · doi:10.4204/eptcs.64.1

published as EPTCS 64, 2011, pp. 1-15 · In Proceedings EXPRESS 2011, arXiv:1108.4077

arxiv created 2011/08/23 · arxiv updated 2011/08/24

Abstract

Covariant-contravariant simulation is a combination of standard (covariant) simulation, its contravariant counterpart and bisimulation. We have previously studied its logical characterization by means of the covariant-contravariant modal logic. Moreover, we have investigated the relationships between this model and that of modal transition systems, where two kinds of transitions (the so-called may and must transitions) were combined in order to obtain a simple framework to express a notion of refinement over state-transition models. In a classic paper, Boudol and Larsen established a precise connection between the graphical approach, by means of modal transition systems, and the logical approach, based on Hennessy-Milner logic without negation, to system specification. They obtained a (graphical) representation theorem proving that a formula can be represented by a term if, and only if, it is consistent and prime. We show in this paper that the formulae from the covariant-contravariant modal logic that admit a "graphical" representation by means of processes, modulo the covariant-contravariant simulation preorder, are also the consistent and prime ones. In order to obtain the desired graphical representation result, we first restrict ourselves to the case of covariant-contravariant systems without bivariant actions. Bivariant actions can be incorporated later by means of an encoding that splits each bivariant action into its covariant and its contravariant parts.

Citations