Colored Petri Nets are Monoidal Double Functors
Category Theory
2025-10-09 v2
Abstract
We give a characterization of colored Petri nets as monoidal double functors. Framing colored Petri nets in terms of category theory allows for canonical definitions of various well-known constructions on colored Petri nets. In particular, we show how morphisms of colored Petri nets may be understood as natural transformations. The displayed category construction explains how lax double functors are equivalent to functors with codomain their former domain. We use this result to characterize the unfolding of colored Petri nets in terms of free symmetric monoidal categories.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.01946,
title = {Colored Petri Nets are Monoidal Double Functors},
author = {Jade Master and Joe Moeller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.01946},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
21 pages