GAVAZZO , Francesco

We study the extent to which it is possible to approximate the optimal value of a Unique Games instance in Fixed -Point Logic with Counting (FPC). Formally, we prove lower bounds against the accuracy of FPC-interpretations that map Unique Games instances (encoded as relational structures) to rational numbers giving the approximate fraction of...

This dissertation investigates notions of program equivalence and metric for higher-order sequential languages with algebraic effects. Computational effects are those aspects of computation that involve forms of interaction with the environment. Due to such an interactive behaviour, reasoning about effectful programs is well-known to be hard....

This paper studies quantitative refinements of Abramsky's applica-tive similarity and bisimilarity in the context of a generalisation of Fuzz, a call-by-value λ-calculus with a linear type system that can express program sensitivity, enriched with algebraic operations à la Plotkin and Power. To do so a general, abstract framework for studying...

Motivated by the study of effectful programming languages and computations, we introduce a relational theory of monadic rewriting systems. The latter are rewriting systems whose notion of reduction is effectful, where effects are modelled as monads. Contrary to what happens in the ordinary operational semantics of monadic programming languages,...

Logical relations built on top of an operational semantics are one of the most successful proof methods in programming language semantics. In recent years, more and more expressive notions of operationally-based logical relations have been designed and applied to specific families of languages. However, a unifying abstract framework for...

Graded modal types systems and coeffects are becoming a standard formalism to deal with context-dependent, usage-sensitive computations, especially when combined with computational effects. From a semantic perspective, effectful and coeffectful languages have been studied mostly by means of denotational semantics and almost nothing has been...

Normal form bisimulation, also known as open bisimulation, is a coinductive technique for higher-order program equivalence in which programs are compared by looking at their essentially infinitary tree-like normal forms, i.e. at their Böhm or Lévy-Longo trees. The technique has been shown to be useful not only when proving metatheorems about...

We investigate program equivalence for linear higher-order (sequential) languages endowed with primitives for computational effects. More specifically, we study operationally-based notions of program equivalence for a linear λ-calculus with explicit copying and algebraic effects à la Plotkin and Power. Such a calculus makes explicit the...