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Expressiveness results for process algebras

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Semantics: Foundations and Applications (REX 1992)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 666))

Abstract

The expressive power of process algebras is investigated in a general setting of structural operational semantics. The notion of an effective operational semantics is introduced and it is observed that no effective operational semantics for an enumerable language can specify all effective process graphs up to trace equivalence. A natural class of Plotkin style SOS specifications is identified, containing the guarded versions of calculi like CCS, SCCS, Meije and ACP, and it is proved that any specification in this class induces an effective operational semantics. Using techniques introduced by Bloom, it is shown that for the guarded versions of CCS-like calculi, there is a double exponential bound on the speed with which the number of outgoing transitions in a state can grow. As a corollary of this result it follows that two expressiveness results of De Simone for Meije and SCCS depend in a fundamental way on the use of unguarded recursion. A final result of this paper is that all operators definable via a finite number of rules in a format due to De Simone, are derived operators in the simple process calculus PC.

Most of this work was carried out while the author was at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, supported by ONR contract N00014-85-K-0168. Part of this work took place in the context of the ESPRIT Basic Research Action 7166, CONCUR2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Technology, Kruislaan 413, 1098, SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Frits W. Vaandrager

  2. Programming Research Group, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098, SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Frits W. Vaandrager

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  1. Frits W. Vaandrager
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J. W. de Bakker W. -P. de Roever G. Rozenberg

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Vaandrager, F.W. (1993). Expressiveness results for process algebras. In: de Bakker, J.W., de Roever, W.P., Rozenberg, G. (eds) Semantics: Foundations and Applications. REX 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 666. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56596-5_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56596-5_49

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