Venue. LMCS

2026

Hofmann-Streicher lifting of fibred categories slattery-2026-hofmann

In 1997, Hofmann and Streicher introduced an explicit construction to lift a Grothendieck universe from the category of sets into the category of set-valued presheaves on a small category. More recently, Awodey presented an elegant functorial analysis of this construction in terms of the categorical nerve, the right adjoint to the functor that takes a presheaf to its category of elements; in particular, the categorical nerve’s functorial action on the universal small discrete fibration gives the generic family of the universe’s Hofmann-Streicher lifting. Inspired by Awodey’s analysis, we define a relative version of Hofmann-Streicher lifting in terms of the right pseudo-adjoint to the 2-functor given by postcomposition with a fibration. Finally, we construct a new 2-bifibration of fibrations in which the opcartesian and cartesian lifts arise from these pseudo-adjunctions.
DOI · arXiv

Univalent Enriched Categories and the Enriched Rezk Completion vanderweide-2026-univalent

Enriched categories are categories whose sets of morphisms are enriched with extra structure. Such categories play a prominent role in the study of higher categories, homotopy theory, and the semantics of programming languages. In this paper, we study univalent enriched categories. We prove that all essentially surjective and fully faithful functors between univalent enriched categories are equivalences, and we show that every enriched category admits a Rezk completion. Finally, we use the Rezk completion for enriched categories to construct univalent enriched Kleisli categories.
DOI

Normalization for multimodal type theory gratzer-2026-normalization

We prove normalization for MTT, a general multimodal dependent type theory capable of expressing modal type theories for guarded recursion, internalized parametricity, and various other prototypical modal situations. We prove that deciding type checking and conversion in MTT can be reduced to deciding the equality of modalities in the underlying modal situation, immediately yielding a type checking algorithm for all instantiations of MTT in the literature. This proof uses a generalization of synthetic Tait computability – an abstract approach to gluing proofs – to account for modalities. This extension is based on MTT itself, so that this proof also constitutes a significant case study of MTT.
DOI · arXiv

2025

The categorical contours of the Chomsky-Schützenberger representation theorem mellies-2025-the

We develop fibrational perspectives on context-free grammars and on nondeterministic finite-state automata over categories and operads. A generalized CFG is a functor from a free colored operad (aka multicategory) generated by a pointed finite species into an arbitrary base operad: this encompasses classical CFGs by taking the base to be a certain operad constructed from a free monoid, as an instance of a more general construction of an operad of spliced arrows 𝒲︀𝒞︀ for any category 𝒞︀. A generalized NFA is a functor from an arbitrary bipointed category or pointed operad satisfying the unique lifting of factorizations and finite fiber properties: this encompasses classical word automata and tree automata without 𝜖-transitions, but also automata over non-free categories and operads. We show that generalized context-free and regular languages satisfy suitable generalizations of many of the usual closure properties, and in particular we give a simple conceptual proof that context-free languages are closed under intersection with regular languages. Finally, we observe that the splicing functor 𝒲︀:Cat→Oper admits a left adjoint 𝒞︀:Oper→Cat, which we call the contour category construction since the arrows of 𝒞︀𝒪︀ have a geometric interpretation as oriented contours of operations of 𝒪︀. A direct consequence of the contour / splicing adjunction is that every pointed finite species induces a universal CFG generating a language of tree contour words. This leads us to a generalization of the Chomsky-Schützenberger Representation Theorem, establishing that a subset of a homset 𝐿⊆𝒞︀(𝐴,𝐵) is a CFL of arrows if and only if it is a functorial image of the intersection of a 𝒞︀-chromatic tree contour language with a regular language.
DOI · arXiv

The Formal Theory of Monads, Univalently vanderweide-2025-thex

We develop the formal theory of monads, as established by Street, in univalent foundations. This allows us to formally reason about various kinds of monads on the right level of abstraction. In particular, we define the bicategory of monads internal to a bicategory, and prove that it is univalent. We also define Eilenberg-Moore objects, and we show that both Eilenberg-Moore categories and Kleisli categories give rise to Eilenberg-Moore objects. Finally, we relate monads and adjunctions in arbitrary bicategories. Our work is formalized in Coq using the UniMath library.
DOI

2024

Unifying cubical and multimodal type theory aagaard-2024-unifying

In this paper we combine the principled approach to modalities from multimodal type theory (MTT) with the computationally well-behaved realization of identity types from cubical type theory (CTT). The result – cubical modal type theory (Cubical MTT) – has the desirable features of both systems. In fact, the whole is more than the sum of its parts: Cubical MTT validates desirable extensionality principles for modalities that MTT only supported through ad hoc means. We investigate the semantics of Cubical MTT and provide an axiomatic approach to producing models of Cubical MTT based on the internal language of topoi and use it to construct presheaf models. Finally, we demonstrate the practicality and utility of this axiomatic approach to models by constructing a model of (cubical) guarded recursion in a cubical version of the topos of trees. We then use this model to justify an axiomatization of Löb induction and thereby use Cubical MTT to smoothly reason about guarded recursion.
DOI · arXiv

Stabilized profunctors and stable species of structures fiore-2024-stabilized

We introduce a bicategorical model of linear logic which is a novel variation of the bicategory of groupoids, profunctors, and natural transformations. Our model is obtained by endowing groupoids with additional structure, called a kit, to stabilize the profunctors by controlling the freeness of the groupoid action on profunctor elements. The theory of generalized species of structures, based on profunctors, is refined to a new theory of stable species of structures between groupoids with Boolean kits. Generalized species are in correspondence with analytic functors between presheaf categories; in our refined model, stable species are shown to be in correspondence with restrictions of analytic functors, which we characterize as being stable, to full subcategories of stabilized presheaves. Our motivating example is the class of finitary polynomial functors between categories of indexed sets, also known as normal functors, that arises from kits enforcing free actions. We show that the bicategory of groupoids with Boolean kits, stable species, and natural transformations is cartesian closed. This makes essential use of the logical structure of Boolean kits and explains the well-known failure of cartesian closure for the bicategory of finitary polynomial functors between categories of set-indexed families and cartesian natural transformations. The paper additionally develops the model of classical linear logic underlying the cartesian closed structure and clarifies the connection to stable domain theory.
DOI · arXiv

2023

LNL polycategories and doctrines of linear logic shulman-2023-lnl

We define and study LNL polycategories, which abstract the judgmental structure of classical linear logic with exponentials. Many existing structures can be represented as LNL polycategories, including LNL adjunctions, linear exponential comonads, LNL multicategories, IL-indexed categories, linearly distributive categories with storage, commutative and strong monads, CBPV-structures, models of polarized calculi, Freyd-categories, and skew multicategories, as well as ordinary cartesian, symmetric, and planar multicategories and monoidal categories, symmetric polycategories, and linearly distributive and *-autonomous categories. To study such classes of structures uniformly, we define a notion of LNL doctrine, such that each of these classes of structures can be identified with the algebras for some such doctrine. We show that free algebras for LNL doctrines can be presented by a sequent calculus, and that every morphism of doctrines induces an adjunction between their 2-categories of algebras.
DOI · arXiv

2022

Quotients, inductive types, and quotient inductive types fiore-2022-quotients

This paper introduces an expressive class of indexed quotient-inductive types, called QWI types, within the framework of constructive type theory. They are initial algebras for indexed families of equational theories with possibly infinitary operators and equations. We prove that QWI types can be derived from quotient types and inductive types in the type theory of toposes with natural number object and universes, provided those universes satisfy the Weakly Initial Set of Covers (WISC) axiom. We do so by constructing QWI types as colimits of a family of approximations to them defined by well-founded recursion over a suitable notion of size, whose definition involves the WISC axiom. We developed the proof and checked it using the Agda theorem prover.
DOI · arXiv

A Cubical Language for Bishop Sets sterling-2022-a

We present XTT, a version of Cartesian cubical type theory specialized for Bishop sets à la Coquand, in which every type enjoys a definitional version of the uniqueness of identity proofs. Using cubical notions, XTT reconstructs many of the ideas underlying Observational Type Theory, a version of intensional type theory that supports function extensionality. We prove the canonicity property of XTT (that every closed boolean is definitionally equal to a constant) using Artin gluing.
DOI

2021

Multimodal Dependent Type Theory gratzerNutyzBirkedal2021

We introduce MTT, a dependent type theory which supports multiple modalities. MTT is parametrized by a mode theory which specifies a collection of modes, modalities, and transformations between them. We show that different choices of mode theory allow us to use the same type theory to compute and reason in many modal situations, including guarded recursion, axiomatic cohesion, and parametric quantification. We reproduce examples from prior work in guarded recursion and axiomatic cohesion, thereby demonstrating that MTT constitutes a simple and usable syntax whose instantiations intuitively correspond to previous handcrafted modal type theories. In some cases, instantiating MTT to a particular situation unearths a previously unknown type theory that improves upon prior systems. Finally, we investigate the metatheory of MTT. We prove the consistency of MTT and establish canonicity through an extension of recent type-theoretic gluing techniques. These results hold irrespective of the choice of mode theory, and thus apply to a wide variety of modal situations.
DOI

ReLoC Reloaded: A Mechanized Relational Logic for Fine-Grained Concurrency and Logical Atomicity frumin_krebbers_birkedal_reloc_2021

We present a new version of ReLoC: a relational separation logic for proving refinements of programs with higher-order state, fine-grained concurrency, polymorphism and recursive types. The core of ReLoC is its refinement judgment 𝑒≾𝑒′:𝜏, which states that a program 𝑒 refines a program 𝑒′ at type 𝜏. ReLoC provides type-directed structural rules and symbolic execution rules in separation-logic style for manipulating the judgment, whereas in prior work on refinements for languages with higher-order state and concurrency, such proofs were carried out by unfolding the judgment into its definition in the model. ReLoC’s abstract proof rules make it simpler to carry out refinement proofs, and enable us to generalize the notion of logically atomic specifications to the relational case, which we call logically atomic relational specifications. We build ReLoC on top of the Iris framework for separation logic in Coq, allowing us to leverage features of Iris to prove soundness of ReLoC, and to carry out refinement proofs in ReLoC. We implement tactics for interactive proofs in ReLoC, allowing us to mechanize several case studies in Coq, and thereby demonstrate the practicality of ReLoC. ReLoC Reloaded extends ReLoC (LICS’18) with various technical improvements, a new Coq mechanization, and support for Iris’s prophecy variables. The latter allows us to carry out refinement proofs that involve reasoning about the program’s future. We also expand ReLoC’s notion of logically atomic relational specifications with a new flavor based on the HOCAP pattern by Svendsen et al.
DOI · arXiv

2020

Modalities in homotopy type theory rijke-2020-modalities

Univalent homotopy type theory (HoTT) may be seen as a language for the category of ∞-groupoids. It is being developed as a new foundation for mathematics and as an internal language for (elementary) higher toposes. We develop the theory of factorization systems, reflective subuniverses, and modalities in homotopy type theory, including their construction using a “localization” higher inductive type. This produces in particular the (𝑛-connected, 𝑛-truncated) factorization system as well as internal presentations of subtoposes, through lex modalities. We also develop the semantics of these constructions.
DOI · arXiv

Call-by-name Gradual Type Theory new_licata_2020_lmcs

We present gradual type theory, a logic and type theory for call-by-name gradual typing. We define the central constructions of gradual typing (the dynamic type, type casts and type error) in a novel way, by universal properties relative to new judgments for gradual type and term dynamism, which were developed in blame calculi and to state the “gradual guarantee” theorem of gradual typing. Combined with the ordinary extensionality (𝜂) principles that type theory provides, we show that most of the standard operational behavior of casts is uniquely determined by the gradual guarantee. This provides a semantic justification for the definitions of casts, and shows that non-standard definitions of casts must violate these principles. Our type theory is the internal language of a certain class of preorder categories called equipments. We give a general construction of an equipment interpreting gradual type theory from a 2-category representing non-gradual types and programs, which is a semantic analogue of Findler and Felleisen’s definitions of contracts, and use it to build some concrete domain-theoretic models of gradual typing.
DOI · arXiv

2019

Displayed Categories ahrens-lumsdaine-2019

We introduce and develop the notion of displayed categories. A displayed category over a category C is equivalent to “a category D and functor F : D –> C”, but instead of having a single collection of “objects of D” with a map to the objects of C, the objects are given as a family indexed by objects of C, and similarly for the morphisms. This encapsulates a common way of building categories in practice, by starting with an existing category and adding extra data/properties to the objects and morphisms. The interest of this seemingly trivial reformulation is that various properties of functors are more naturally defined as properties of the corresponding displayed categories. Grothendieck fibrations, for example, when defined as certain functors, use equality on objects in their definition. When defined instead as certain displayed categories, no reference to equality on objects is required. Moreover, almost all examples of fibrations in nature are, in fact, categories whose standard construction can be seen as going via displayed categories. We therefore propose displayed categories as a basis for the development of fibrations in the type-theoretic setting, and similarly for various other notions whose classical definitions involve equality on objects. Besides giving a conceptual clarification of such issues, displayed categories also provide a powerful tool in computer formalisation, unifying and abstracting common constructions and proof techniques of category theory, and enabling modular reasoning about categories of multi-component structures. As such, most of the material of this article has been formalised in Coq over the UniMath library, with the aim of providing a practical library for use in further developments.

We introduce and develop the notion of displayed categories. A displayed category over a category 𝐶 is equivalent to “a category 𝐷 and functor 𝐹:𝐷→𝐶, but instead of having a single collection of “objects of 𝐷” with a map to the objects of 𝐶, the objects are given as a family indexed by objects of 𝐶, and similarly for the morphisms. This encapsulates a common way of building categories in practice, by starting with an existing category and adding extra data/properties to the objects and morphisms. The interest of this seemingly trivial reformulation is that various properties of functors are more naturally defined as properties of the corresponding displayed categories. Grothendieck fibrations, for example, when defined as certain functors, use equality on objects in their definition. When defined instead as certain displayed categories, no reference to equality on objects is required. Moreover, almost all examples of fibrations in nature are, in fact, categories whose standard construction can be seen as going via displayed categories. We therefore propose displayed categories as a basis for the development of fibrations in the type-theoretic setting, and similarly for various other notions whose classical definitions involve equality on objects. Besides giving a conceptual clarification of such issues, displayed categories also provide a powerful tool in computer formalisation, unifying and abstracting common constructions and proof techniques of category theory, and enabling modular reasoning about categories of multi-component structures. As such, most of the material of this article has been formalised in Coq over the UniMath library, with the aim of providing a practical library for use in further developments.

DOI · arXiv

A sequent calculus for a semi-associative law zeilberger-2019-a

We introduce a sequent calculus with a simple restriction of Lambek’s product rules that precisely captures the classical Tamari order, i.e., the partial order on fully-bracketed words (equivalently, binary trees) induced by a semi-associative law (equivalently, right rotation). We establish a focusing property for this sequent calculus (a strengthening of cut-elimination), which yields the following coherence theorem: every valid entailment in the Tamari order has exactly one focused derivation. We then describe two main applications of the coherence theorem, including: 1. A new proof of the lattice property for the Tamari order, and 2. A new proof of the Tutte-Chapoton formula for the number of intervals in the Tamari lattice 𝑌𝑛.
DOI · arXiv

2013

Generalizing determinization from automata to coalgebras silva-2013-generalizing

The powerset construction is a standard method for converting a nondeterministic automaton into a deterministic one recognizing the same language. In this paper, we lift the powerset construction from automata to the more general framework of coalgebras with structured state spaces. Coalgebra is an abstract framework for the uniform study of different kinds of dynamical systems. An endofunctor F determines both the type of systems (F-coalgebras) and a notion of behavioural equivalence (~_F) amongst them. Many types of transition systems and their equivalences can be captured by a functor F. For example, for deterministic automata the derived equivalence is language equivalence, while for non-deterministic automata it is ordinary bisimilarity. We give several examples of applications of our generalized determinization construction, including partial Mealy machines, (structured) Moore automata, Rabin probabilistic automata, and, somewhat surprisingly, even pushdown automata. To further witness the generality of the approach we show how to characterize coalgebraically several equivalences which have been object of interest in the concurrency community, such as failure or ready semantics.
DOI · arXiv

2012

First steps in synthetic guarded domain theory: step-indexing in the topos of trees birkedalFirstStepsSGDT2012

We present the topos S of trees as a model of guarded recursion. We study the internal dependently-typed higher-order logic of S and show that S models two modal operators, on predicates and types, which serve as guards in recursive definitions of terms, predicates, and types. In particular, we show how to solve recursive type equations involving dependent types. We propose that the internal logic of S provides the right setting for the synthetic construction of abstract versions of step-indexed models of programming languages and program logics. As an example, we show how to construct a model of a programming language with higher-order store and recursive types entirely inside the internal logic of S. Moreover, we give an axiomatic categorical treatment of models of synthetic guarded domain theory and prove that, for any complete Heyting algebra A with a well-founded basis, the topos of sheaves over A forms a model of synthetic guarded domain theory, generalizing the results for S.
DOI
lmcs venue entries/venues/lmcs.hel