Bisimulation as a Logical Relation

Abstract: We investigate how various forms of bisimulation can be characterised using the technology of logical relations. The approach taken is that each form of bisimulation corresponds to an algebraic structure derived from a transition system, and the general result is that a relation $R$ between two transition systems on state spaces $S$ and $T$ is a bisimulation if and only if the derived algebraic structures are in the logical relation automatically generated from $R$. We show that this approach works for the original Park-Milner bisimulation and that it extends to weak bisimulation, and branching and semi-branching bisimulation. The paper concludes with a discussion of probabilistic bisimulation, where the situation is slightly more complex, partly owing to the need to encompass bisimulations that are not just relations.