By Karl Crary, from ICFP 2010, available from Karl Crary’s website:

We present a technique for higher-order representation of substructural logics such as linear or modal logic. We show that such logics can be encoded in the (ordinary) Logical Framework, without any linear or modal extensions. Using this encoding, metatheoretic proofs about such logics can easily be developed in the Twelf proof assistant.

Associated Twelf code can be found here.

By Christian Urban and Brian Huffman, from ITP 2010, available from Christian Urban’s website:

Pitts et al introduced a beautiful theory about names and binding based on the notions of permutation and support. The engineering challenge is to smoothly adapt this theory to a theorem prover environment, in our case Isabelle/HOL. We present a formalisation of this work that differs from our earlier approach in two important respects: First, instead of representing permutations as lists of pairs of atoms, we now use a more abstract representation based on functions. Second, whereas the earlier work modeled different sorts of atoms using different types, we now introduce a unified atom type that includes all sorts of atoms. Interestingly, we allow swappings, that is permutations build from two atoms, to be ill-sorted. As a result of these design changes, we can iron out inconveniences for the user, considerably simplify proofs and also drastically reduce the amount of custom ML-code. Furthermore we can extend the capabilities of Nominal Isabelle to deal with variables that carry additional information. We end up with a pleasing and formalised theory of permutations and support, on which we can build an improved and more powerful version of Nominal Isabelle.

Combining higher-order abstract syntax and (co)-induction in a logical framework is well known to be problematic. We describe the theory and the practice of a tool called Hybrid, within Isabelle/HOL and Coq, which aims to address many of these difficulties. It allows object logics to be represented using higher-order abstract syntax, and reasoned about using tactical theorem proving and principles of (co)induction. Moreover, it is definitional, which guarantees consistency within a classical type theory. The idea is to have a de Bruijn representation of λ-terms providing a definitional layer that allows the user to represent object languages using higher-order abstract syntax, while offering tools for reasoning about them at the higher level. In this paper we describe how to use Hybrid in a multi-level reasoning fashion, similar in spirit to other systems such as Twelf and Abella. By explicitly referencing provability in a middle layer called a specification logic, we solve the problem of reasoning by (co)induction in the presence of non-stratifiable hypothetical judgments, which allow very elegant and succinct specifications of object logic inference rules. We first demonstrate the method on a simple example, formally proving type soundness (subject reduction) for a fragment of a pure functional language, using a minimal intuitionistic logic as the specification logic. We then prove an analogous result for a continuation-machine presentation of the operational semantics of the same language, encoded this time in an ordered linear logic that serves as the specification layer. This example demonstrates the ease with which we can incorporate new specification logics, and also illustrates a significantly more complex object logic whose encoding is elegantly expressed using features of the new specification logic.

We analyse the relationship between nominal algebra and nominal rewriting, giving a new and concise presentation of equational deduction in nominal theories. With some new results, we characterise a subclass of equational theories for which nominal rewriting provides a complete procedure to check nominal algebra equality. This subclass includes specifications of lambda-calculus and first-order logic.

By Andrew D. Gordon and Tom Melham, from TPHOLs 1996, available from CiteSeer X:

We present five axioms of name-carrying lambda-terms identified up to alpha-conversion—that is, up to renaming of bound variables. We assume constructors for constants, variables, application and lambda-abstraction. Other constants represent a function Fv that returns the set of free variables in a term and a function that substitutes a term for a variable free in another term. Our axioms are (1) equations relating Fv and each constructor, (2) equations relating substitution and each constructor, (3) alpha-conversion itself, (4) unique existence of functions on lambda-terms defined by structural iteration, and (5) construction of lambda-abstractions given certain functions from variables to terms. By building a model from de Bruijn’s nameless lambda-terms, we show that our five axioms are a conservative extension of HOL. Theorems provable from the axioms include distinctness, injectivity and an exhaustion principle for the constructors, principles of structural induction and primitive recursion on lambda-terms, Hindley and Seldin’s substitution lemmas and the existence of their length function. These theorems and the model have been mechanically checked in the Cambridge HOL system.

By Thorsten Altenkirch, unpublished Functional Pearl, available from the Haskell wiki:

We present a new and simple account of α-conversion suitable for formal reasoning. Our main tool is to define α-conversion as a a structural congruence parametrized by a partial bijection on free variables. We show a number of basic properties of substitution. e.g. that substitution is monadic which entails all the usual substitution laws. Finally, we relate α-equivalence classes to de Bruijn terms.

The unification of simply typed λ-terms modulo the rules of β- and η-conversions is often called “higher-order” unification because of the possible presence of variables of functional type. This kind of unification is undecidable in general and if unifiers exist, most general unifiers may not exist. In this paper, we show that such unification problems can be coded as a query of the logic programming language Lλ in a natural and clear fashion. In a sense, the translation only involves explicitly axiomatizing in Lλ the notions of equality and substitution of the simply
typed λ-calculus: the rest of the unification process can be viewed as simply an interpreter of Lλ searching for proofs using those axioms.

There’s currently plans to set up a Mathoverflow-style site for theoretical computer scientists.  Here, theoretical computer science is being widely interpreted to include type theory, programming language semantics, automated reasoning, and so on, as well as the likes of computational complexity and computational geometry.  Some example on- and off-topic questions are provided with the proposal definition.

The proposal process is fairly simple.  If you wish to support the creation of this site, then simply follow the above link and press “Commit”.  Once the “Commit” counter reaches 100%, the site automatically launches in beta-mode.

Nominal abstract syntax and higher-order abstract syntax provide a means for describing binding structure which is higher-level than traditional techniques. These approaches have spawned two different communities which have developed along similar lines but with subtle differences that make them difficult to relate. The nominal abstract syntax community has devices like names, freshness, name-abstractions with variable capture, and the new-quantifier, whereas the higher-order abstract syntax community has devices like lambda-binders, lambda conversion, raising, and the nabla-quantifier. This paper aims to unify these communities and provide a concrete correspondence between their different devices. In particular, we develop a semantics-preserving translation from alpha-Prolog, a nominal abstract syntax based logic programming language, to G-, a higher-order abstract syntax based logic programming language. We also discuss higher-order judgments, a common and powerful tool for specifications with higher-order abstract syntax, and we show how these can be incorporated into G-. This establishes G- as a language with the power of higher-order abstract syntax, the fine-grained variable control of nominal specifications, and the desirable properties of higher-order judgments.

Higher-order encodings use functions provided by one language to represent variable binders of another. They lead to concise and elegant representations, which historically have been difficult to analyze and manipulate.
In this paper we present the nabla-calculus, a calculus for defining general recursive functions over higher-order encodings. To avoid problems commonly associated with using the same function space for representations and computations, we separate one from the other. The simply-typed λ-calculus plays the role of the representation level. The computation level contains not only the usual computational primitives but also an embedding of the representation-level. It distinguishes itself from similar systems by allowing recursion under representation-level λ-binders while permitting a natural style of programming which we believe scales to other logical frameworks. Sample programs include bracket abstraction, parallel reduction, and an evaluator for a simple language with first-class continuations.