On the role of connectivity in Linear Logic proofs

Abstract: We investigate a property that extends the Danos-Regnier correctness criterion for linear logic proof-structures. The property applies to the correctness graphs of a proof-structure: it states that any such graph is acyclic and that the number of its connected components is exactly one more than the number of nodes bottom or weakening. This is known to be necessary but not sufficient in multiplicative exponential linear logic (MELL) to recover a sequent calculus proof from a proof-structure. We present a geometric condition on untyped proof-structures allowing us to turn this necessary property into a sufficient one: we can thus isolate several fragments of MELL for which this property is indeed a correctness criterion. We also recover as by-product some known results.