Michael Mislove
(Tulane University)

"Models for Probability and Nondeterminism"

In many computational settings both the nondeterministic behavior of the system and the random effects of the environment are apparent, and it is important to have models that support reasoning about both phenomena. In this talk I'll discuss how to devise models that support both these phenomena within the context of domains. These structures are fundamental for defining the semantics of programming languages, but the application of domains has spread far afield of semantics. The models for nondeterminism are the now-classic power domains due to Hennessy, Plotkin and Smyth, while the models of probabilistic choice include sub-probability measures and now random variables defined on domains. I'll explain what domains are all about, and how these various models are devised, so no prior knowledge of the area is required.

This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the NSF.

The Colloquium is supported by generous contributions from the Bloomberg, Information Builders, Inc. and Netlogic, Inc.