Technical Reports

The report FIMU-RS-2014-03

Probabilistic Bisimulation: Naturally on Distributions

by Holger Hermanns, Jan Krčál, Jan Křetínský, April 2014, 36 pages.

FIMU-RS-2014-03. Available as Postscript, PDF.

Abstract:

In contrast to the usual understanding of probabilistic systems as stochastic processes, recently these systems have also been regarded as transformers of probabilities. In this paper, we give a natural definition of strong bisimulation for probabilistic systems corresponding to this view that treats probability distributions as first-class citizens. Our definition applies in the same way to discrete systems as well as to systems with uncountable state and action spaces. Several examples demonstrate that our definition refines the understanding of behavioural equivalences of probabilistic systems. In particular, it solves a longstanding open problem concerning the representation of memoryless continuous time by memoryfull continuous time. Finally, we give algorithms for computing this bisimulation not only for finite but also for classes of uncountably infinite systems.

Responsible contact: veda@fi.muni.cz

Please install a newer browser for this site to function properly.

More information