English

Concurrent Kleene Algebra with Observations: from Hypotheses to Completeness

Logic in Computer Science 2023-02-03 v1

Abstract

Concurrent Kleene Algebra (CKA) extends basic Kleene algebra with a parallel composition operator, which enables reasoning about concurrent programs. However, CKA fundamentally misses tests, which are needed to model standard programming constructs such as conditionals and while\mathsf{while}-loops. It turns out that integrating tests in CKA is subtle, due to their interaction with parallelism. In this paper we provide a solution in the form of Concurrent Kleene Algebra with Observations (CKAO). Our main contribution is a completeness theorem for CKAO. Our result resorts on a more general study of CKA "with hypotheses", of which CKAO turns out to be an instance: this analysis is of independent interest, as it can be applied to extensions of CKA other than CKAO.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2002.09682,
  title  = {Concurrent Kleene Algebra with Observations: from Hypotheses to Completeness},
  author = {Tobias Kappé and Paul Brunet and Alexandra Silva and Jana Wagemaker and Fabio Zanasi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.09682},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:50:17.303Z