Mathematics – Category Theory
Scientific paper
2010-11-18
Mathematics
Category Theory
31 pages, currently technical report, submitted to MSCS, waiting reviews
Scientific paper
String diagrams are a powerful tool for reasoning about physical processes, logic circuits, tensor networks, and many other compositional structures. The distinguishing feature of these diagrams is that edges need not be connected to vertices at both ends, and these unconnected ends can be interpreted as the inputs and outputs of a diagram. In this paper, we give a concrete construction for string diagrams using a special kind of typed graph called an open-graph. While the category of open-graphs is not itself adhesive, we introduce the notion of a selective adhesive functor, and show that such a functor embeds the category of open-graphs into the ambient adhesive category of typed graphs. Using this functor, the category of open-graphs inherits "enough adhesivity" from the category of typed graphs to perform double-pushout (DPO) graph rewriting. A salient feature of our theory is that it ensures rewrite systems are "type-safe" in the sense that rewriting respects the inputs and outputs. This formalism lets us safely encode the interesting structure of a computational model, such as evaluation dynamics, with succinct, explicit rewrite rules, while the graphical representation absorbs many of the tedious details. Although topological formalisms exist for string diagrams, our construction is discreet, finitary, and enjoys decidable algorithms for composition and rewriting. We also show how open-graphs can be parametrised by graphical signatures, similar to the monoidal signatures of Joyal and Street, which define types for vertices in the diagrammatic language and constraints on how they can be connected. Using typed open-graphs, we can construct free symmetric monoidal categories, PROPs, and more general monoidal theories. Thus open-graphs give us a handle for mechanised reasoning in monoidal categories.
Dixon Lucas
Kissinger Aleks
No associations
LandOfFree
Open Graphs and Monoidal Theories does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Open Graphs and Monoidal Theories, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Open Graphs and Monoidal Theories will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-536030