CONCUR20: CONCUR 2020: 31ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCURRENCY THEORY
PROGRAM FOR THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD
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13:00-14:15 Session 11A: Invariant Synthesis (CET time)
13:00
Algebraic Invariants for Linear Hybrid Automata

ABSTRACT. We exhibit an algorithm to compute the strongest algebraic (or polynomial) invariants that hold at each location of a given unguarded linear hybrid automaton (i.e., a hybrid automaton having only unguarded transitions, all of whose assignments are given by affine expressions, and all of whose continuous dynamics are given by linear differential equations). Our main tool is a control-theoretic result of independent interest: given such a linear hybrid automaton, we show how to discretise the continuous dynamics in such a way that the resulting automaton has precisely the same algebraic invariants.

13:25
Decidable Inductive Invariants for Verification of Cryptographic Protocols with Unbounded Sessions

ABSTRACT. We develop a theory of decidable inductive invariants for an infinite-state variant of the Applied pi-calculus, with applications to automatic verification of stateful cryptographic protocols with unbounded sessions/nonces. Since the problem is undecidable in general, we introduce depth-bounded protocols, a strict generalisation of a class from the literature, for which our decidable analysis is sound and complete. Our core contribution is a procedure to check that an invariant is inductive, which implies that every reachable configuration satisfies it. Our invariants can capture security properties like secrecy, can be inferred automatically, and represent an independently checkable certificate of correctness. We provide a prototype implementation and we report on its performance on some textbook examples.

13:50
Decidability and Synthesis of Abstract Inductive Invariants

ABSTRACT. Decidability and synthesis of inductive invariants ranging in a given domain play an important role in software verification. We consider here inductive invariants belonging to an abstract domain A as defined in abstract interpretation, namely, ensuring the existence of the best approximation in A of any system property. In this setting, we study the decidability of the existence of abstract inductive invariants in A of transition systems and their corresponding algorithmic synthesis. Our model relies on some general results which relate the existence of abstract inductive invariants with least fixed points of best correct approximations in A of the transfer functions of transition systems and their completeness properties. This approach allows us to derive decidability and synthesis results for abstract inductive invariants which are applied to the well-known Karr's numerical abstract domain of affine equalities. Moreover, we show that a recent general algorithm for synthesizing inductive invariants in domains of logical formulae can be systematically derived from our results and generalized to a range of algorithms for computing abstract inductive invariants.

13:00-14:15 Session 11B: Process Algebras (CET time)
13:00
Canonical Expressions of Finite-State Behaviours and Completeness of Equational Axiomatisations
PRESENTER: Xinxin Liu

ABSTRACT. In this paper we propose a new strategy for proving completeness of equational axiomatisations for finite-state behaviours, and present completeness proofs for equational axiomatisations of four bisimulation based tau-abstract behavioural congruences: branching congruence, delay congruence, eta-congruence, and observational congruence. Unlike the standard strategy for proving completeness of this kind by joining guarded equations, originally proposed by Milner, in this work we do it by constructing canonical expressions which can be used to bridge the gap between the two expressions of which the equality is to be established.

13:25
On the Representation of References in the Pi-calculus

ABSTRACT. The π-calculus has been advocated as a model to interpret, and give semantics to, languages with higher-order features. Often these languages make use of forms of store and references. While translations of references in π-calculi (and CCS) have appeared, the precision of such translations has not been fully investigated. In this paper we address this issue. We focus on the asynchronous π-calculus (Aπ), where translations of references are simpler. We first define πref , an extension of Aπ with references and operators to manipulate them, and illustrate examples of the subtelties of behavioural equivalence in πref. We then consider a translation of π ref into Aπ. References of πref are mapped onto names of Aπ belonging to a dedicated "reference" type. We show how the presence of reference names affects the definition of barbed congruence. We establish full abstraction of the translation w.r.t. barbed congruence in the two calculi. We investigate proof techniques for barbed congruence in Aπ, based on two forms of labelled bisimilarities. For one bisimilarity we derive both soundness and completeness; for another, more efficient and involving an inductive ‘game’ on reference names, we derive soundness, leaving completeness open. Finally, we discuss examples of uses of the bisimilarities.

13:50
A general approach to derive uncontrolled reversible semantics
PRESENTER: Doriana Medić

ABSTRACT. Reversible computing is a paradigm where programs can execute backward as well as in the usual forward direction. Reversible computing is attracting interest due to its applications in areas as different as biochemical modeling, simulation, robotics and debugging, among others. In concurrent systems the main notion of reversible computing is called causal-consistent reversibility, and it allows one to undo an action if and only if its consequences, if any, have already been undone. This paper presents a general and automatic technique to define a causal-consistent reversible extension for given forward models. We support models defined using a reduction semantics in a specific format and consider a causality relation based on resources consumed and produced. The considered format is general enough to fit many formalisms studied in the literature on causal-consistent reversibility, notably Higher-Order $\pi$-calculus and Core Erlang, an intermediate language in the Erlang compilation. Reversible extensions of these models in the literature are ad hoc, while we build them using the same general technique. This also allows us to show in a uniform way that a number of relevant properties, causal-consistency in particular, hold in the reversible extensions we build. Our technique also allows us to go beyond the reversible models in the literature: we cover a larger fragment of Core Erlang, including remote error handling based on links, which has never been considered in the reversibility literature.

14:45-16:00 Session 13A: Algebras and Co-Algebras (CET time)
14:45
Non axiomatizability of positive relation algebras with constants, via graph homomorphisms
PRESENTER: Amina Doumane

ABSTRACT. We study the equational theories of composition and intersection on binary relations, with or without their associated neutral elements (identity and full relation). Without these constants, the equational theory coincides with that of semilattice-ordered semigroups. We show that the equational theory is no longer finitely based when adding one or the other constant—contradicting a conjecture from the litterature. Our proofs exploit a characterisation in terms of graphs and graph homomorphisms, which we show how to adapt in order to capture standard equational theories over the considered signatures.

15:10
Monads and Quantitative Equational Theories for Nondeterminism and Probability

ABSTRACT. The monad of convex sets of probability distributions is a well-known tool for modelling the combination of nondeterministic and probabilistic computational effects. In this work we lift this monad from the category of sets to the category of metric spaces, by means of the Hausdorff and Kantorovich metric liftings. Our main result is the presentation of this lifted monad in terms of the quantitative equational theory of convex semilattices, using the framework of quantitative algebras recently introduced by Mardare, Panangaden and Plotkin.

15:35
Characteristic Logics for Behavioural Metrics via Fuzzy Lax Extensions
PRESENTER: Paul Wild

ABSTRACT. Behavioural distances provide a suitably fine-grained measure of equivalence in systems involving quantitative data, such as probabilistic, fuzzy, or metric systems. Like in the classical setting of crisp bisimulation-type equivalences, the wide variation found in system types creates a need for generic methods that apply to many system types at once. Generic methods of this kind are emerging within the paradigm of universal coalgebra, based either on lifting pseudometrics along set functors or on lifting general real-valued (*fuzzy*) relations along functors by means of *fuzzy lax extensions*. An immediate benefit of the latter is that they allow bounding behavioural distance by means of fuzzy bisimulations that need not themselves be (pseudo-)metrics, in analogy to classical bisimulations (which need not be equivalence relations). We show that the known instances of generic pseudometric liftings, specifically the generic Kantorovich and Wasserstein liftings, both can be extended to yield fuzzy lax extensions, using the fact that both are effectively given by a choice of quantitative modalities. Our central result then shows that in fact all fuzzy lax extensions are Kantorovich extensions for a suitable set of quantitative modalities, the so-called *Moss modalities*. For *non-expansive* fuzzy lax extensions, this allows for the extraction of quantitative modal logics that characterize behavioural distance, i.e. satisfy a quantitative version of the Hennessy-Milner theorem; equivalently, we obtain expressiveness of a quantitative version of Moss' coalgebraic logic.

14:45-16:00 Session 13B: Vector Addition Sytems with States (CET time)
14:45
Coverability in 1-VASS with Disequality Tests
PRESENTER: Guillermo Perez

ABSTRACT. We study a class of reachability problems in weighted graphs with constraints on the accumulated weight of paths. The problems we study can equivalently be formulated in the model of vector addition systems with states (VASS). We consider a version of the vertex-to-vertex reachability problem in which the accumulated weight of a path is required always to be non-negative. This is equivalent to the so-called control-state reachability problem (also called the coverability problem) for 1-dimensional VASS. We show that this problem lies in NC: the class of problems solvable in polylogarithmic parallel time. In our main result we generalise the problem to allow disequality constraints on edges (i.e., we allow edges to be disabled if the accumulated weight is equal to a specific value). We show that in this case the vertex-to-vertex reachability problem is solvable in polynomial time even though a shortest path may have exponential length. In the language of VASS this means that control-state reachability is in polynomial time for 1-dimensional VASS with disequality tests.

15:10
PRESENTER: Jérôme Leroux

ABSTRACT. Vector addition system with states is an ubiquitous model of computation with extensive applications in computer science. The reachability problem for vector addition systems is central since many other problems reduce to that question. The problem is decidable and it was recently proved that the dimension of the vector addition system is an important parameter of the complexity. In fixed dimensions larger than two, the complexity is not known (with huge complexity gaps). In dimension two, the reachability problem was shown to be PSPACE-complete by Blondin et al. in 2015. We consider an extension of this model, called 2-TVASS, where the first counter can be tested for zero. This model naturally extends the classical model of one counter automata (OCA). We show that reachability is still solvable in polynomial space for 2-TVASS. As in the work Blondin et al., our approach relies on the existence of small reachability certificates obtained by concatenating polynomially many cycles.

15:35
Universality Problem for Unambiguous VASS
PRESENTER: Piotr Hofman

ABSTRACT. We study languages of unambiguous VASS, that is, Vector Addition Systems with States, whose transitions read letters from a finite alphabet, and whose acceptance condition is defined by a set of final states (i.e., the coverability language). We show that the problem of universality for unambiguous VASS is ExpSpace-complete, in sheer contrast to Ackermann-completeness for arbitrary VASS, even in dimension 1. When the dimension d∈N is fixed, the universality problem is PSpace-complete if d≥2, and coNP-hard for 1-dimensional VASSes (also known as One Counter Nets).

16:30-17:30 Session 15: Keynote by Roderick Bloem (CET time)
16:30
Safe Reinforcement Learning using Probabilistic Shields

ABSTRACT. This paper concerns the efficient construction of a safety shield for reinforcement learning. We specifically target scenarios that incorporate uncertainty and use Markov decision processes (MDPs) as the underlying model to capture such problems. Reinforcement learning (RL) is a machine learning technique that can determine near-optimal policies in MDPs that may be unknown before exploring the model. However, during exploration, RL is prone to induce behavior that is undesirable or not allowed in safety- or mission-critical contexts. We introduce the concept of a probabilistic shield that enables RL decision-making to adhere to safety constraints with high probability. We employ formal verification to efficiently compute the probabilities of critical decisions within a safety-relevant fragment of the MDP. These results help to realize a shield that, when applied to an RL algorithm, restricts the agent from taking unsafe actions, while optimizing the performance objective. We discuss tradeoffs between sufficient progress in the exploration of the environment and ensuring safety. In our experiments, we demonstrate on the arcade game PAC-MAN and on a case study involving service robots that the learning efficiency increases as the learning needs orders of magnitude fewer episodes.