Abstract
A categorical framework for modeling and analyzing systems in a broad sense is proposed. These systems should be thought of as ‘machines’ with inputs and outputs, carrying some sort of signal that occurs through some notion of time. Special cases include continuous and discrete dynamical systems (e.g. Moore machines). Additionally, morphisms between the different types of systems allow their translation in a common framework. A central goal is to understand the systems that result from arbitrary interconnection of component subsystems, possibly of different types, as well as establish conditions that ensure totality and determinism compositionally. The fundamental categorical tools used here include lax monoidal functors, which provide a language of compositionality, as well as sheaf theory, which flexibly captures the crucial notion of time.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramsky, S., Blute, R., Panangaden, P.: Nuclear and trace ideals in tensored \(\ast \)-categories. J. Pure Appl. Algebra, 143(1–3), 3–47 (1999) (special volume on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Professor Michael Barr (Montreal, QC, 1997))
Adámek, J., Borceux, F., Lack, S., Rosický, J.: A classification of accessible categories. J. Pure Appl. Algebra 175(1–3), 7–30 (2002) (special volume celebrating the 70th birthday of Professor Max Kelly)
Ageron, P.: Effective taxonomies and crossed taxonomies. Cahiers Topologie Géom. Différentielle Catég. 37(2), 82–90 (1996)
Barr, M.: Exact categories. In: Exact Categories and Categories of Sheaves, vol. 236, pp. 1–120. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0058579
Berger, C.: A cellular nerve for higher categories. Adv. Math. 169, 118–175 (2002)
Berger, C., Melliès, P.-A., Weber, M.: Monads with arities and their associated theories. J. Pure Appl. Algebra 216(8), 2029–2048 (2012)
Bunge, M., Fiore, M.P.: Unique factorisation lifting functors and categories of linearly-controlled processes. Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. 10(2), 137–163 (2000)
Day, B., Street, R.: Monoidal bicategories and Hopf algebroids. Adv. Math. 129(1), 99–157 (1997)
De Paiva, V.C.V.: The Dialectica Categories. Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, UK (1990)
Fiore, M.P.: Fibred models of processes: discrete, continuous, and hybrid systems. In: Proceedings of the International Conference IFIP on Theoretical Computer Science, Exploring New Frontiers of Theoretical Informatics, TCS ’00, pp. 457–473. Springer, Berlin (2000)
Fong, B., Spivak, D.: Hypergraph Categories. arXiv:1806.08304 [math.CT] (2018)
Fong, B.: The Algebra of Open and Interconnected Systems. Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford (2016)
Hedges, J.: Morphisms of open games. Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 341, 151–177 (2018)
Hermida, C.: Representable multicategories. Adv. Math. 151(2), 164–225 (2000)
Jacobs, B.: Categorical Logic and Type Theory, Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics, vol. 141. North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam (1999)
Johnstone, P.: A note on discrete Conduché fibrations. Theory Appl. Categ. 5(1), 1–11 (1999)
Johnstone, P.T.: Sketches of an Elephant: A Topos Theory Compendium, Volume 43 of Oxford Logic Guides. The Clarendon Press, New York (2002)
Joyal, A., Street, R.: Braided tensor categories. Adv. Math. 102(1), 20–78 (1993)
Joyal, A., Nielsen, M., Winskel, G.: Bisimulation from open maps. Inf. Computat. 127(2), 164–185 (1996)
Joyal, A., Street, R., Verity, D.: Traced monoidal categories. Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 119(3), 447–468 (1996)
Katis, P., Sabadini, N., Walters, R.F.C.: On the algebra of systems with feedback and boundary. Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo Serie II(63), 123–156 (2000)
Kock, J.: Polynomial functors and trees. Int. Math. Res. Not. 2011(3), 609–673 (2011)
Lambek, J.: Deductive systems and categories. II. Standard constructions and closed categories. In: Category Theory, Homology Theory and their Applications, I (Battelle Institute Conference, Seattle, Wash., 1968, Vol. 1), pp. 76–122. Springer, Berlin (1969)
Lawvere, F.W.: State categories and response functors. Unpublished manuscript (1986)
Lee, Edward A., Seshia, Sanjit A.: Introduction to Embedded Systems, A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach, 2nd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge (2017)
Leinster, T.: Nerves of algebras. Talk at CT04, Vancouver (2004)
Leinster, T.: Higher Operads, Higher Categories. Number 298 in London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2004)
Markl, M., Merkulov, S., Shadrin, S.: Wheeled props, graph complexes and the master equation. J. Pure Appl. Algebra 213(4), 496–535 (2009)
Milner, R.: Calculi for interaction. Acta Inform. 33(8), 707–737 (1996)
Moeller, J., Vasilakopoulou, C.: Monoidal grothendieck construction. arXiv:1809.00727 (2018)
Rupel, D., Spivak, D.I.: The operad of temporal wiring diagrams: formalizing a graphical language for discrete-time processes CoRR. arxiv:1307.6894 (2013)
Schultz, P., Spivak, D.I.: Temporal type theory: a topos-theoretic approach to systems and behavior. In: Progress in computer science and applied logic, vol. 29, p. 235. Birkhäuser Basel (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00704-1 (2017)
Selinger, P.: First-order axioms for asynchrony. In: International Conference on Concurrency Theory, pp. 376–390. Springer (1997)
Spivak, D.I., Schultz, P., Rupel, D.: String diagrams for traced and compact categories are oriented 1-cobordisms. J Pure Appl Algebra. 221(8), 2064–2110 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpaa.2016.10.009
Spivak, D.I.: The operad of wiring diagrams: formalizing a graphical language for databases, recursion, and plug-and-play circuits. CoRR, arXiv:1305.0297 (2013)
Spivak, D.I.: The steady states of coupled dynamical systems compose according to matrix arithmetic. arXiv preprint: arXiv:1512.00802 (2015)
Stay, M.: Compact closed bicategories. Theory Appl. Categ. 31, 755–798 (2016)
Sztipanovits, J., Ying, S.: Strategic r&d opportunities for 21st century cyber-physical systems. Technical report, National Institute of Standards and Technology (2013)
Vagner, D., Spivak, D.I., Lerman, E.: Algebras of open dynamical systems on the operad of wiring diagrams. Theory Appl. Categ. 30(51), 1793–1822 (2015)
Weber, M.: Familial 2-functors and parametric right adjoints. Theory Appl. Categ. 18(22), 665–732 (2007)
Willems, J.C., Polderman, J.W.: Introduction to Mathematical Systems Theory: A Behavioral Approach, vol. 26. Springer, Berlin (2013)
Winskel, G.: Event Structures, pp. 325–392. Springer, Berlin (1987)
Acknowledgements
We greatly appreciate our collaboration with Alberto Speranzon and Srivatsan Varadarajan, who have helped us to understand how the ideas presented here can be applied in practice (specifically for modeling the National Airspace System) and who provided motivating examples with which to test and often augment the theory. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions; in particular, such a suggestion led to a more abstract formalism of system algebras, explained in Section 2.4.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Richard Garner.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Schultz, Spivak and Vasilakopoulou were supported by AFOSR Grant FA9550–14–1–0031 and NASA Grant NNH13ZEA001N.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schultz, P., Spivak, D.I. & Vasilakopoulou, C. Dynamical Systems and Sheaves. Appl Categor Struct 28, 1–57 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10485-019-09565-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10485-019-09565-x