We develop an operational domain theory for treating recursive types with respect to contextual equivalence. The principal approach we take deviates from classical domain theory in that we do not produce the recursive types using the usual inverse limits constructions – we get them for free by working directly with the operational semantics. By extending type expressions to functors between some ‘syntactic’ categories, we establish algebraic compactness. To do this, we rely on an operational version of the minimal invariance property, for which we give a purely operational proof.

In this paper we study approach structures on dcpo's. A dcpo (X, ≤) will be endowed with several other structures: the Scott topology; an approach structure generated by a collection of weightable quasi metrics on X; and a collection of weights corresponding to the quasi metrics. Understanding the interaction between these structures on X will eventually lead to some fixed-point theorems for the morphisms in the category of approach spaces, which are called contractions. Existing fixed-point theorems on both monotone and non-monotone maps are obtained as special cases.

We define a number of stochastic equivalences in the dtsPBC framework, which is a discrete time stochastic extension of finite Petri box calculus (PBC) enriched with iteration. These equivalences allow the identification of stochastic processes that have similar behaviour but are differentiated by the semantics of the calculus. We explain how the equivalences we propose can be used to reduce transition systems of expressions, and demonstrate how to apply the equivalences to compare the stationary behaviour. The equivalences guarantee a coincidence of performance indices for stochastic systems, and can be used for performance analysis simplification. We use a case study to outline a method of modelling, performance evaluation and behaviour preserving reduction of concurrent computing systems, and apply it to the dining philosophers system.

We present a categorical model for intuitionistic linear logic in which objects are polynomial diagrams and morphisms are simulation diagrams. The multiplicative structure (tensor product and its adjoint) can be defined in any locally cartesian closed category, but the additive (product and coproduct) and exponential (-comonoid comonad) structures require additional properties and are only developed in the category Set, where the objects and morphisms have natural interpretations in terms of games, simulation and strategies.