A Compositional Account of Generalized Reversible Computing
Abstract
We develop a compositional framework for generalized reversible computing using copy-discard categories and resource theories. We introduce partitioned matrices between partitioned sets as subdistribution matrices which preserve the equivalence relation of its domain. We model computational and physical transformations as subdistribution matrices over the category of sets and partitioned matrices on partitioned sets, respectively. We show that the interactions between the physical and computational transformations are governed by an aggregation functor whose functoriality and monoidality we deduce from general principles of the formal theory of monads. We study the associated copy-discard structures, in particular, general conditions for determinism and partial invertibility. We then define several notions of entropies that we use to state and prove the fundamental theorem of generalized reversible computing.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.02425,
title = {A Compositional Account of Generalized Reversible Computing},
author = {Clémence Chanavat and Priyaa Varshinee Srinivasan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.02425},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
v2: minor improvements, added related work section