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Nominal Techniques

Nominal techniques provide a rigorous treatment of computational scenarios that are invariant under permutations of names. Such scenarios include, among others, variable bindings, scope and dynamic resource creation. The mathematical underpinnings of the subject go back to research into set theory (Fraenkel-Mostowski sets) and investigations into models that fail to satisfy the Axiom of Choice.
Nearly every concept in computer science and mathematics can be reinvestigated through the nominal lens, by insisting on additional invariance under permutability. This often reveals subtle connections with challenging mathematical problems and may lead to surprising results.
On the applied front, nominal techniques turn out to be a useful tool in automata theory, database theory and programming language semantics.

 

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