Samson Abramsky on Logic and Structure in Computer Science and Beyond

Samson Abramsky on Logic and Structure in Computer Science and Beyond

Author: Alessandra Palmigiano

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-09-02

Total Pages: 1149

ISBN-13: 3031241177

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Samson Abramsky’s wide-ranging contributions to logical and structural aspects of Computer Science have had a major influence on the field. This book is a rich collection of papers, inspired by and extending Abramsky’s work. It contains both survey material and new results, organised around six major themes: domains and duality, game semantics, contextuality and quantum computation, comonads and descriptive complexity, categorical and logical semantics, and probabilistic computation. These relate to different stages and aspects of Abramsky’s work, reflecting its exceptionally broad scope and his ability to illuminate and unify diverse topics. Chapters in the volume include a review of his entire body of work, spanning from philosophical aspects to logic, programming language theory, quantum theory, economics and psychology, and relating it to a theory of unification of sciences using dual adjunctions. The section on game semantics shows how Abramsky’s work has led to a powerful new paradigm for the semantics of computation. The work on contextuality and categorical quantum mechanics has been highly influential, and provides the foundation for increasingly widely used methods in quantum computing. The work on comonads and descriptive complexity is building bridges between currently disjoint research areas in computer science, relating Structure to Power. The volume also includes a scientific autobiography, and an overview of the contributions. The outstanding set of contributors to this volume, including both senior and early career academics, serve as testament to Samson Abramsky’s enduring influence. It will provide an invaluable and unique resource for both students and established researchers.


Topological Duality for Distributive Lattices

Topological Duality for Distributive Lattices

Author: Mai Gehrke

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-02-29

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1009349716

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Introducing Stone–Priestley duality theory and its applications to logic and theoretical computer science, this book equips graduate students and researchers with the theoretical background necessary for reading and understanding current research in the area. After giving a thorough introduction to the algebraic, topological, logical, and categorical aspects of the theory, the book covers two advanced applications in computer science, namely in domain theory and automata theory. These topics are at the forefront of active research seeking to unify semantic methods with more algorithmic topics in finite model theory. Frequent exercises punctuate the text, with hints and references provided.


From Electrons to Elephants and Elections

From Electrons to Elephants and Elections

Author: Shyam Wuppuluri

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-04-08

Total Pages: 886

ISBN-13: 3030921921

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This highly interdisciplinary book, covering more than six fields, from philosophy and sciences all the way up to the humanities and with contributions from eminent authors, addresses the interplay between content and context, reductionism and holism and their meeting point: the notion of emergence. Much of today’s science is reductionist (bottom-up); in other words, behaviour on one level is explained by reducing it to components on a lower level. Chemistry is reduced to atoms, ecosystems are explained in terms of DNA and proteins, etc. This approach fails quickly since we can’t cannot extrapolate to the properties of atoms solely from Schrödinger's equation, nor figure out protein folding from an amino acid sequence or obtain the phenotype of an organism from its genotype. An alternative approach to this is holism (top-down). Consider an ecosystem or an organism as a whole: seek patterns on the same scale. Model a galaxy not as 400 billion-point masses (stars) but as an object in its own right with its own properties (spiral, elliptic). Or a hurricane as a structured form of moist air and water vapour. Reductionism is largely about content, whereas holistic models are more attuned to context. Reductionism (content) and holism (context) are not opposing philosophies — in fact, they work best in tandem. Join us on a journey to understand the multifaceted dialectic concerning this duo and how they shape the foundations of sciences and humanities, our thoughts and, the very nature of reality itself.


The Quantum-Like Revolution

The Quantum-Like Revolution

Author: Arkady Plotnitsky

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-06-27

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 3031129865

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Over the last ten years, elements of the formalism of quantum mechanics have been successfully applied beyond physics in areas such as psychology (especially cognition), economics and finance (especially in the formalization of so-called ‘decision making’), political science, and molecular biology. An important stream of work along these lines, commonly under the heading of quantum-like modeling, has been published in well regarded scientific journals, and major publishers have devoted entire books to the topic. This Festschrift honors a key figure in this field of research: Andrei Khrennikov, who made momentous contributions to it and to quantum foundations themselves. While honoring these contributions, and in order to do so, this Festschrift orients its reader toward the future rather than focusing on the past: it addresses future challenges and establishes the way forward in both domains, quantum-like modeling and quantum foundations. A while ago, in response to the developments of using the quantum formalism outside of quantum mechanics, the eminent quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger said, ‘Why should it be precisely the quantum mechanics formalism? Maybe its generalization would be more adequate...’ This volume responds to this statement by both showing the reasons for the continuing importance of quantum formalism and yet also considering pathways to such generalizations. Khrennikov’s work has been indispensable in establishing the great promise of quantum and quantum-like thinking in shaping the future of scientific research across the disciplines.


Philosophy of Information

Philosophy of Information

Author:

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2008-11-10

Total Pages: 823

ISBN-13: 0080930840

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Information is a recognized fundamental notion across the sciences and humanities, which is crucial to understanding physical computation, communication, and human cognition. The Philosophy of Information brings together the most important perspectives on information. It includes major technical approaches, while also setting out the historical backgrounds of information as well as its contemporary role in many academic fields. Also, special unifying topics are high-lighted that play across many fields, while we also aim at identifying relevant themes for philosophical reflection. There is no established area yet of Philosophy of Information, and this Handbook can help shape one, making sure it is well grounded in scientific expertise. As a side benefit, a book like this can facilitate contacts and collaboration among diverse academic milieus sharing a common interest in information.• First overview of the formal and technical issues involved in the philosophy of information• Integrated presentation of major mathematical approaches to information, form computer science, information theory, and logic• Interdisciplinary themes across the traditional boundaries of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.


Logic and Algebraic Structures in Quantum Computing

Logic and Algebraic Structures in Quantum Computing

Author: Jennifer Chubb

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-02-26

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1316654060

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Arising from a special session held at the 2010 North American Annual Meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic, this volume is an international cross-disciplinary collaboration with contributions from leading experts exploring connections across their respective fields. Themes range from philosophical examination of the foundations of physics and quantum logic, to exploitations of the methods and structures of operator theory, category theory, and knot theory in an effort to gain insight into the fundamental questions in quantum theory and logic. The book will appeal to researchers and students working in related fields, including logicians, mathematicians, computer scientists, and physicists. A brief introduction provides essential background on quantum mechanics and category theory, which, together with a thematic selection of articles, may also serve as the basic material for a graduate course or seminar.


Computation, Logic, Games, and Quantum Foundations - The Many Facets of Samson Abramsky

Computation, Logic, Games, and Quantum Foundations - The Many Facets of Samson Abramsky

Author: Bob Coecke

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-18

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 3642381642

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This Festschrift volume, published in honor of Samson Abramsky, contains contributions written by some of his colleagues, former students, and friends. In celebration of the 60th birthday of Samson Abramsky, a conference was held in Oxford, UK, during May 28-30, 2010. The papers in this volume represent his manifold contributions to semantics, logic, games, and quantum mechanics.


Mathematical Foundations of Information Flow

Mathematical Foundations of Information Flow

Author: Samson Abramsky

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0821849239

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This volume is based on the 2008 Clifford Lectures on Information Flow in Physics, Geometry and Logic and Computation, held March 12-15, 2008, at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The varying perspectives of the researchers are evident in the topics represented in the volume, including mathematics, computer science, quantum physics and classical and quantum information. A number of the articles address fundamental questions in quantum information and related topics in quantum physics, using abstract categorical and domain-theoretic models for quantum physics to reason about such systems and to model spacetime. Readers can expect to gain added insight into the notion of information flow and how it can be understood in many settings. They also can learn about new approaches to modeling quantum mechanics that provide simpler and more accessible explanations of quantum phenomena, which don't require the arcane aspects of Hilbert spaces and the cumbersome notation of bras and kets.


Finite Model Theory and Its Applications

Finite Model Theory and Its Applications

Author: Erich Grädel

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-06-04

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 3540688048

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Finite model theory,as understoodhere, is an areaof mathematicallogic that has developed in close connection with applications to computer science, in particular the theory of computational complexity and database theory. One of the fundamental insights of mathematical logic is that our understanding of mathematical phenomena is enriched by elevating the languages we use to describe mathematical structures to objects of explicit study. If mathematics is the science of patterns, then the media through which we discern patterns, as well as the structures in which we discern them, command our attention. It isthis aspect oflogicwhichis mostprominentin model theory,“thebranchof mathematical logic which deals with the relation between a formal language and its interpretations”. No wonder, then, that mathematical logic, and ?nite model theory in particular, should ?nd manifold applications in computer science: from specifying programs to querying databases, computer science is rife with phenomena whose understanding requires close attention to the interaction between language and structure. This volume gives a broadoverviewof some central themes of ?nite model theory: expressive power, descriptive complexity, and zero–one laws, together with selected applications to database theory and arti?cial intelligence, es- cially constraint databases and constraint satisfaction problems. The ?nal chapter provides a concise modern introduction to modal logic,which emp- sizes the continuity in spirit and technique with ?nite model theory.


Logic and Program Semantics

Logic and Program Semantics

Author: Robert L. Constable

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-04-26

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 3642294855

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This Festschrift volume is published in honor of Dexter Kozen on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Dexter Kozen has been a leader in the development of Kleene Algebras (KAs). The contributions in this volume reflect the breadth of his work and influence. The volume includes 19 full papers related to Dexter Kozen's research. They deal with coalgebraic methods, congruence closure; the completeness of various programming logics; decision procedure for logics; alternation; algorithms and complexity; and programming languages and program analysis. The second part of this volume includes laudatios from several collaborators, students and friends, including the members of his current band.