Posetal Diagrams for Logically-Structured Semistrict Higher Categories

Chiara Sarti
(Department of Computer Science, University of Cambridge)
Jamie Vicary
(Department of Computer Science, University of Cambridge)

We now have a wide range of proof assistants available for compositional reasoning in monoidal or higher categories which are free on some generating signature. However, none of these allow us to represent categorical operations such as products, equalizers, and similar logical techniques. Here we show how the foundational mathematical formalism of one such proof assistant can be generalized, replacing the conventional notion of string diagram as a geometrical entity living inside an n-cube with a posetal variant that allows exotic branching structure. We show that these generalized diagrams have richer behaviour with respect to categorical limits, and give an algorithm for computing limits in this setting, with a view towards future application in proof assistants.

In Sam Staton and Christina Vasilakopoulou: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Applied Category Theory 2023 (ACT 2023), University of Maryland, 31 July - 4 August 2023, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 397, pp. 246–259.
Reformatted paper
Published: 14th December 2023.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.397.15 bibtex PDF
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