Structured Operational Semantics

On this page I will list some papers on general SOS theory. Now what is general SOS theory? Roughly, such theory tries to give answers on questions that normally take some time to prove them, but can now be dealt with more easily. For instance if you want to know whether or not a particular operational semantics is compositional, it would be interesting to have a theorem at hand giving you sufficient conditions to decide that this is indeed the case. On this page I will list some contributions that aid in this goal. Comments and or questions are most welcome!

A congruence theorem for SOS with predicates

This paper is written by J.C.M. Baeten and C. Verhoef. Please find below an abstract. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. I didnt include a dvi file since somehow you need to generate many fonts with METAFONT to view it.. obviously not what you want. Click here for a text only version produced by dvitty. Note: the paper appeared in the CONCUR 93 proceedings.

Abstract We proposed a syntactical format, the _path_ format, for structured operational semantics in which predicates may occur. We proved that strong bisimulation is a congruence for all the operators that can be defined within the _path_ format. To show that this format is useful we provided many examples that we took from the literature about CCS, CSP, and ACP; they do satisfy the _path_ format but no formats proposed by others. The examples include concepts like termination, convergence, divergence, weak bisimulation, a zero object, side conditions, functions, real time, discrete time, sequencing, negative premises, negative conclusions, and priorities (or a combination of these notions).

Keywords and Phrases: structured operational semantics, term deduction system, transition system specification, structured state system, labelled transition system, strong bisimulation, congruence theorem, predicate.

1980 Mathematics Suject Classification (1985 Revision): 68Q05, 68Q55. CR Categories: D.3.1, F.1.1, F.3.2, F.4.3.

Note: Partial support received from the European Communities under CONCUR 2, BRA 7166.

A congruence theorem for SOS semantics with predicates and negative premises

This paper is written by X. Click here for an abstract. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. I didnt include a dvi file since there is some graphical material in it.. not very well suited to view with xdvi or so. Click here for a text only version produced by LaTeX2html. Note: an earlier version appeared in the CONCUR 94 proceedings and this version appeared in NJC.

A general conservative extension theorem in process algebra

This paper is written by X. Please find below an abstract. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. Click here for a text only version produced by latex2html. Note: the paper appeared in the PROCOMET 94 proceedings.

Abstract We prove a general conservative extension theorem for transition system based process theories with easy-to-check and reasonable conditions. The core of this result is another general theorem giving sufficient conditions for a system of operational rules and an extension ensuring that provable transitions from an original term in the extension are the same as in the original system. As a simple corollary of the conservative extension theorem we prove a completeness theorem. As a first application of our conservativity results, we prove a general theorem giving sufficient conditions to reduce the question of ground confluence modulo some equations for a large term rewriting system associated with an equational process theory to a small term rewriting system under the condition that the large system is a conservative extension of the small one. We provide many other applications to show that our results are useful. The applications include (but are not limited to) various real and discrete time settings in \ccs, \acp, and \atp\ and the notions projection, renaming, state operator, priority, recursion, the silent step (both the weak and branching variants), and the empty process (or combinations of these notions).

Keyword Codes: F.1.2, F.3.2, F.4.3.

Keywords: Concurrency; Operational Semantics; Algebraic language theory.

A Conservative Look at Operational Semantics with Variable Binding

This paper is written by Wan Fokkink and Chris Verhoef. Click here to view the paper as a PDF file. This paper has appeared in Information and Computation.

A general conservative extension theorem in process algebras with inequalities

This paper is written by Pedro R. D'Argenio and Chris Verhoef. Please find below an abstract. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. Click here for a text only version produced by dvitty. Note: this paper appeared in Theoretical Computer Science.

Abstract We prove a general conservative extension theorem for transition system based process theories with easy-to-check and reasonable conditions. The core of this result is another general theorem which gives sufficient conditions for a system of operational rules and an extension of it in order to ensure conservativity, that is, provable transitions from an original term in the extension are the same as in the original system. As a simple corollary of the conservative extension theorem we prove a completeness theorem. We also prove a general theorem giving sufficient conditions to reduce the question of ground confluence modulo some equations for a large term rewriting system associated with an equational process theory to a small term rewriting system under the condition that the large system is a conservative extension of the small one. We provide many applications to show that our results are useful. The applications include (but are not limited to) various real and discrete time settings in \acp, \atp, and \ccs\ and the notions projection, renaming, state operator, priority, recursion, the silent step, autonomous actions, the empty process, divergence, etc.

1980 Mathematics Suject Classification (1985 Revision): 68Q05, 68Q10, 68Q42, 68Q55, 03C05.

CR Categories: D.3.1, F.1.1, F.3.2, F.4.3.

Keywords: structured operational semantics, term deduction system, transition system specification, semantic equivalence, semantic preorder, algebraic system, process algebra, conservative extension.

Conservative Extension in Structural Operational Semantics

This paper is written by Luca Aceto, Wan Fokkink and Chris Verhoef. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. Click here for a PDF version. Click here for a text only version that is impaired but searchable. This paper appeared as a column in the Bulletin of the EATCS. The latter abbreviation stands for European Association for Theoretical Computer Science. Note that this paper is a primer to our contribution for the forthcoming Handbook of Process Algebra.

Structured Operational Semantics

This paper is written by Luca Aceto, Wan Fokkink and Chris Verhoef. Click here to view the paper as a PS file. Click here for a PDF version. Click here for a text only version that is impaired but searchable. This paper will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming Handbook of Process Algebra.