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Preface to the special issue: isomorphisms of types and invertibility of lambda terms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2008

RALPH MATTHES
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), C. N. R. S. et Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III), 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
SERGEI SOLOVIEV
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), C. N. R. S. et Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III), 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
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Isomorphisms of types are computational witnesses of logical equivalence with additional properties. The types/formulas A and B are isomorphic if there are functions (in a certain formalism) f : AB and g : BA such that gf and fg are equal in a certain sense to the identity on A and B, respectively. Typical such formalisms are extensions of simply typed λ-calculus, with βη-convertibility as equality relation. Another view of a pair of functions f : AB and g : BA (besides establishing the logical equivalence of A and B) is that f is invertible with left-inverse g, and it is then natural to relax the above symmetric condition to just gf being equal to the identity on A. In this situation, A is called a retract of B, which is thus a natural generalisation of the notion of an isomorphism, while both these notions are refinements of the concept of logical equivalence in operational terms, that is, in terms of computable functions.

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Guest Editorial Preface
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008