Probabilistic automata (PA) combine probability and nondeterminism. They can be given different semantics, like strong bisimilarity, convex bisimilarity, or (more recently) distribution bisimilarity. The latter is based on the view of PA as transformers of probability distributions, also called belief states, and promotes distributions to first-class citizens. We give a coalgebraic account of the latter semantics, and explain the genesis of the belief-state transformer from a PA. To do so, we make explicit the convex algebraic structure present in PA and identify belief-state transformers as transition systems with state space that carries a convex algebra. As a consequence of our abstract approach, we can give a sound proof technique which we call bisimulation up-to convex hull.
@InProceedings{bonchi_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.23, author = {Bonchi, Filippo and Silva, Alexandra and Sokolova, Ana}, title = {{The Power of Convex Algebras}}, booktitle = {28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017)}, pages = {23:1--23:18}, series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, ISBN = {978-3-95977-048-4}, ISSN = {1868-8969}, year = {2017}, volume = {85}, editor = {Meyer, Roland and Nestmann, Uwe}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Dagstuhl, Germany}, URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.23}, URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-77966}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.23}, annote = {Keywords: belief-state transformers, bisimulation up-to, coalgebra, convex algebra, convex powerset monad, probabilistic automata} }
Feedback for Dagstuhl Publishing