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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2026.22

On the Algorithmic Structure of Dialectica Realisers

Authors: Davide Barbarossa and Thomas Powell

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 363, 34th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2026)

Abstract

Gödel’s Dialectica interpretation is a fundamental tool for the extraction of computational content from proofs, and plays a central role in today’s proof mining program. In the past decades, it has also been studied from the perspective of programming languages, and our contribution is in that direction. Specifically, we present Dialectica as a collection of rules in the style of Hoare logic, where Dialectica is now viewed as a language for specifying procedural programs that come with a forward and backward direction. This viewpoint captures the interesting dynamics of realisers extracted by the Dialectica interpretation, and we illustrate this by defining a generalised backpropagation semantics for a fragment of this language. We envisage this work as providing a base for several future developments, both theoretical and practical, which we outline at the end.

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Davide Barbarossa and Thomas Powell. On the Algorithmic Structure of Dialectica Realisers. In 34th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 363, pp. 22:1-22:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{barbarossa_et_al:LIPIcs.CSL.2026.22,
  author =	{Barbarossa, Davide and Powell, Thomas},
  title =	{{On the Algorithmic Structure of Dialectica Realisers}},
  booktitle =	{34th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2026)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-411-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{363},
  editor =	{Guerrini, Stefano and K\"{o}nig, Barbara},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2026.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254466},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2026.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dialectica interpretation, Hoare logic, Programs from proofs}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2024.14

Tropical Mathematics and the Lambda-Calculus I: Metric and Differential Analysis of Effectful Programs

Authors: Davide Barbarossa and Paolo Pistone

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 288, 32nd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2024)

Abstract

We study the interpretation of the lambda-calculus in a framework based on tropical mathematics, and we show that it provides a unifying framework for two well-developed quantitative approaches to program semantics: on the one hand program metrics, based on the analysis of program sensitivity via Lipschitz conditions, on the other hand resource analysis, based on linear logic and higher-order program differentiation. To do that, we focus on the semantics arising from the relational model weighted over the tropical semiring, and we discuss its application to the study of "best case" program behavior for languages with probabilistic and non-deterministic effects. Finally, we show that a general foundation for this approach is provided by an abstract correspondence between tropical algebra and Lawvere’s theory of generalized metric spaces.

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Davide Barbarossa and Paolo Pistone. Tropical Mathematics and the Lambda-Calculus I: Metric and Differential Analysis of Effectful Programs. In 32nd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 288, pp. 14:1-14:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{barbarossa_et_al:LIPIcs.CSL.2024.14,
  author =	{Barbarossa, Davide and Pistone, Paolo},
  title =	{{Tropical Mathematics and the Lambda-Calculus I: Metric and Differential Analysis of Effectful Programs}},
  booktitle =	{32nd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2024)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-310-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{288},
  editor =	{Murano, Aniello and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2024.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-196577},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2024.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Relational semantics, Differential lambda-calculus, Tropical semiring, Program metrics, Lawvere quantale}
}

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Documents authored by Barbarossa, Davide

On the Algorithmic Structure of Dialectica Realisers

Abstract

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Tropical Mathematics and the Lambda-Calculus I: Metric and Differential Analysis of Effectful Programs

Abstract

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