Induction and Recursion Principles in a Higher-Order Quantitative Logic

Abstract: Quantitative logic reasons about the degree to which formulas are satisfied. This paper studies the fundamental reasoning principles of higher-order quantitative logic and their application to reasoning about probabilistic programs and processes. We construct an affine calculus for 1-bounded complete metric spaces and the monad for probability measures equipped with the Kantorovic distance. The calculus includes a form of guarded recursion interpreted via Banach's fixed point theorem, useful, e.g., for recursive programming with processes. We then define an affine higher-order quantitative logic for reasoning about terms of our calculus. The logic includes novel principles for guarded recursion, and induction over probability measures and natural numbers. Examples of reasoning in the logic include proofs of upper bounds on distances of processes. We also show how our logic can express coupling proofs - a powerful technique for comparing probabilistic processes.