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Wikipedia / Bisimulation

In theoretical computer science, a bisimulation is a binary relation between state transition systems, associating systems that behave in the same way in that one system simulates the other and vice versa.

Intuitively two systems are bisimilar if they, assuming we view them as playing a game according to some rules, match each other's moves. In this sense, each of the systems cannot be distinguished from the other by an observer.

Formal definition

Given a labeled state transition system , where is a set of labels and ), a bisimulation is a binary relation, such that both and its converse are simulationss. From this follows that the symmetric closure of a bisimulation is a bisimulation, and that each symmetric simulation is a bisimulation. Thus some authors define bisimulation as a symmetric simulation.

Equivalently, is a bisimulation in and all labels :

  • ;

  • .

Given two states and in , is bisimilar to , if and only if there is a bisimulation . This means that the bisimilarity relation for some bisimulation .

The set of bisimulations is closed under union; therefore, the bisimilarity relation is itself a bisimulation. Since it is the union of all bisimulations, it is the unique largest bisimulation. Bisimulations are also closed under reflexive, symmetric, and transitive closure; therefore, the largest bisimulation must be reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. From this follows that the largest bisimulation—bisimilarity—is an equivalence relation.

Alternative definitions

Relational definition

Bisimulation can be defined in terms of composition of relations as follows.

Given a labelled state transition system, a bisimulation relation is a binary relation over (i.e.,

From the monotonicity and continuity of relation composition, it follows immediately that the set of bisimulations is closed under unions (joinss in the poset of relations), and a simple algebraic calculation shows that the relation of bisimilarity—the join of all bisimulations—is an equivalence relation. This definition, and the associated treatment of bisimilarity, can be interpreted in any involutive quantale.

Fixpoint definition

Bisimilarity can also be defined in order-theoretical fashion, in terms of fixpoint theory, more precisely as the greatest fixed point of a certain function defined below.

Given a labelled state transition system, , , as follows:

such that:

Bisimilarity is then defined to be the greatest fixed point.

Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé game definition

Bisimulation can also be thought of in terms of a game between two players: attacker and defender.

Attacker and defender continue to take alternating turns until:

  • The defender is unable to find any valid transitions to match the attacker's move. In this case the attacker wins.

  • that are both 'dead' (i.e., there are no transitions from either state) In this case the defender wins

  • The game goes on forever, in which case the defender wins.

  • , which have already been visited. This is equivalent to an infinite play and counts as a win for the defender.

By the above definition the system is a bisimulation if and only if there exists a winning strategy for the defender.

Coalgebraic definition

A bisimulation for state transition systems is a special case of coalgebraic bisimulation for the type of covariant powerset functor can be mapped bijectively to the powerset

-th projection.

is a bisimulation such that the diagram

.

Variants of bisimulation

In special contexts the notion of bisimulation is sometimes refined by adding additional requirements or constraints. An example is that of stutter bisimulation, in which one transition of one system may be matched with multiple transitions of the other, provided that the intermediate states are equivalent to the starting state ("stutters").

A different variant applies if the state transition system includes a notion of silent (or internal, i.e. actions that are not visible by external observers, then bisimulation can be relaxed to be weak bisimulation being an observable and mute transition respectively):

This is closely related to the notion of bisimulation "up to" a relation.

Typically, if the state transition system gives the operational semantics of a programming language, then the precise definition of bisimulation will be specific to the restrictions of the programming language. Therefore, in general, there may be more than one kind of bisimulation (respectively bisimilarity) relationship depending on the context.

Bisimulation and modal logic

Since Kripke models are a special case of (labelled) state transition systems, bisimulation is also a topic in modal logic. In fact, modal logic is the fragment of first-order logic invariant under bisimulation (van Benthem's theorem).

Algorithm

Checking that two finite transition systems are bisimilar can be done in polynomial time. The fastest algorithms are quasilinear time using partition refinement through a reduction to the coarsest partition problem.

See also

Notes and references

  1. Notes

    References

Bibliography

Further reading

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