Copyright Information
The documents distributed by this server have been provided by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of
scholarly and technical work on a noncommercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other
copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying
this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without
the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
Sensoria Bibliography Site On the origins of bisimulation and coinduction
Davide Sangiorgi
abstract:
The origins of bisimulation and bisimilarity are examined, in the three fields where they have been independently discovered: Computer Science, Philosophical Logic (precisely, Modal Logic), Set Theory.
Bisimulation and bisimilarity are coinductive notions, and as such are intimately related to fixed points, in particular greatest fixed points. Therefore also the appearance of coinduction and fixed points is discussed, though in this case only within Computer Science. The paper ends with some historical remarks on the main fixed-point theorems (such as Knaster-Tarski) that underpin the fixed-point theory presented.
