Mechanizing a pi-Calculus Equivalence in HOL

The π-calculus is a relatively simple framework in which the semantics of dynamic creation and transmission of channels can be described nicely. In this paper we consider the issue of verifying mechanically the equivalence of π-terms in the context of bisimulation based semantics while relying on the general purpose theorem prover HOL. Our main contribution is the presentation of a proof method to check early equivalence between π-terms. The method is based on π-terms rewriting and an operational definition of bisimulation. The soundness of the rewriting steps relies on standard algebraic laws which are formally proved in HOL. The resulting method is implemented in HOL as an automatic tactic.