Symbolic Models

Theories can also be instantiated as systems of symbolic expressions, using the @symbolic_model macro. The symbolic expressions are expression trees, as commonly used in computer algebra systems. They are similar to Julia's Expr type but they are instead subtyped from GATlab's GATExpr type and they have a more refined type hierarchy.

A single theory can have different syntax systems, treating different terms as primitive or performing different simplication or normalization procedures. GATlab tries to make it easy to define new syntax systems. Many of the theories included with GATlab have default syntax systems, but the user is encouraged to define their own to suit their needs.

To get started, you can always call the @symbolic_model macro with an empty body. Below, we subtype from GATlab's abstract types ObExpr and HomExpr to enable LaTeX pretty-printing and other convenient features, but this is not required.

@symbolic_model CategoryExprs{ObExpr, HomExpr} ThCategory begin
end
A, B, C, D = [ Ob(CategoryExprs.Ob, X) for X in [:A, :B, :C, :D] ]
f, g, h = Hom(:f, A, B), Hom(:g, B, C), Hom(:h, C, D)
compose(compose(f,g),h)

The resulting symbolic expressions perform no simplification. For example, the associativity law is not satisfied:

compose(compose(f,g),h) == compose(f,compose(g,h))

Thus, unlike instances of a theory, syntactic expressions are not expected to obey all the axioms of the theory.

However, the user may supply logic in the body of the @symbolic_model macro to enforce the axioms or perform other kinds of simplification. Below, we use the associate function provided by GATlab to convert the binary expressions representing composition into $n$-ary expressions for any number $n$. The option strict=true tells GATlab to check that the domain and codomain objects are strictly equal and throw an error if they are not.

@symbolic_model SimplifyingCategoryExprs{ObExpr, HomExpr} ThCategory begin
  compose(f::Hom, g::Hom) = associate(new(f,g; strict=true))
end
A, B, C, D = [ Ob(SimplifyingCategoryExprs.Ob, X) for X in [:A, :B, :C, :D] ]
f, g, h = Hom(:f, A, B), Hom(:g, B, C), Hom(:h, C, D)
compose(compose(f,g),h)

Now the associativity law is satisfied:

compose(compose(f,g),h) == compose(f,compose(g,h))

Primitive versus derived operations

In some algebraic structures, there is a choice as to which operations should be considered primitive and which should be derived. For example, in a cartesian monoidal category, the copy operation $\Delta_X: X \to X \otimes X$ can be defined in terms of the pairing operation $\langle f, g \rangle$, or vice versa. In addition, the projections $\pi_{X,Y}: X \otimes Y \to X$ and $\pi_{X,Y}': X \otimes Y \to Y$ can be defined in terms of the deleting operation (terminal morphism) or left as primitive.

In GATlab, the recommended way to deal with such situations is to define all the operations in the theory and then allow particular syntax systems to determine which operations, if any, will be derived from others. In the case of the cartesian monoidal category, we could define a signature CartesianCategory by inheriting from the builtin theory SymmetricMonoidalCategory.

using GATlab

@signature ThCartesianCategory <: ThSymmetricMonoidalCategory begin
  mcopy(A::Ob)::(A → (A ⊗ A))
  delete(A::Ob)::(A → munit())
  pair(f::(A → B), g::(A → C))::(A → (B ⊗ C)) ⊣ (A::Ob, B::Ob, C::Ob)
  proj1(A::Ob, B::Ob)::((A ⊗ B) → A)
  proj2(A::Ob, B::Ob)::((A ⊗ B) → B)
end
nothing # hide

We could then define the copying operation in terms of the pairing.

@symbolic_model CartesianCategoryExprsV1{ObExpr,HomExpr} ThCartesianCategory begin
  mcopy(A::Ob) = pair(id(A), id(A))
end
A = Ob(CartesianCategoryExprsV1.Ob, :A)
mcopy(A)

Alternatively, we could define the pairing and projections in terms of the copying and deleting operations.

@symbolic_model CartesianCategoryExprsV2{ObExpr,HomExpr} ThCartesianCategory begin
  pair(f::Hom, g::Hom) = compose(mcopy(dom(f)), otimes(f,g))
  proj1(A::Ob, B::Ob) = otimes(id(A), delete(B))
  proj2(A::Ob, B::Ob) = otimes(delete(A), id(B))
end
A, B, C = [ Ob(CartesianCategoryExprsV2.Ob, X) for X in [:A, :B, :C] ]
f, g = Hom(:f, A, B), Hom(:g, A, C)
pair(f, g)