Symbolic bisimulation for a higher-order distributed language with passivation (extended abstract)

Abstract

We study the behavioural theory of a higher-order distributed calculus with private names and locations that can be passivated. For this language, we present a novel Labelled Transition System where higher-order inputs are symbolic agents that can perform a limited number of transitions, capturing the nature of passivation. Standard first-order weak bisimulation over this LTS coincides with contextual equivalence, and provides the first useful proof technique without a universal quantification over contexts for an intricate distributed language.