Relations and Non-commutative Linear Logic

Abstract

Linear logic differs from intuitionistic logic primarily in the absence of the structural rules of weakening and contraction. Weakening allows us to prove a proposition in the context of irrelevant or unused premises, while contraction allows us to use a premise an arbitrary number of times. Linear logic has been called a ''resource-conscious'' logic, since the premises of a sequent must appear exactly as many times as they are used.

In this paper, we address this ''experimental nature'' by presenting a non-commutative intuitionistic linear logic with several attractive properties. Our logic discards even the limited commutativityof Yetter's logic in which cyclic permutations of formulae are permitted. It arises in a natural way from the system of intuitionistic linear logic presented by Girard and Lafont, and we prove a cut elimination theorem. In linear logic, the rules of weakening and contraction are recovered in a restricted sense by the introduction of the exponential modality(!). This recaptures the expressive power of intuitionistic logic. In our logic the modality ! recovers the non-commutative analogues of these structural rules. However, the most appealing property of our logic is that it is both sound and complete with respect to interpretation in a natural class of models which we call relational quantales.