‘CAS is such a fantastic institution,’ said mathematician and former CAS project leader Bjørn Ian Dundas when thinking back on his year at the Centre.
2018/2019
Homotopy Type Theory and Univalent Foundations
Homotopy Type Theory and Univalent Foundations
Mathematics
Principal investigators
Abstract
Two central questions in the foundations of mathematics are: 'What is a proof?' and 'What does it mean to be equal?'
The answers to these questions vary enormously, both through time, but also from one culture to another. The modern mathematical proof may seem the most rigorous of all alternatives. Still, the ideal of well-documented, accountable knowledge, communicated with a proof certificate, is in no way reached. Typically, the validity of extremely complicated mathematical proofs is still supported only by the community's trust in peer review performed by a few acknowledged experts.
Since the modern society depends on mathematics, secure foundations are important. In the digital era we have powerful tools for verifying (and to some extent generating) formal mathematical proofs. The central challenge is finding a language that has sufficient expressive power, and at the same time can be mechanically processed in an efficient way. Homotopy type theory addresses exactly this challenge.
In this approach equality has a topological interpretation, yielding great flexibility. Our project aims at further exploring this novel foundation of mathematics, and apply it to verify some challenging mathematical theories.
Fellows
Thierry Coquand
Professor
Chalmers University of Technology & University of Gothenburg
Year at CAS
Peter Dybjer
Professor
Chalmers University of Technology & University of Gothenburg
Year at CAS
News
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation granted Thierry Coquand support for his joint mathematical and computer science project “Type Theory for Mathematics and Computer Science”.