Using Algebra for Concurrency: Some Approaches

This short introduction to an algebraic approach to concurrency has necessarily omitted some intricate details, as well as paying no attention to other algebraic approaches (for example, Vaughan Pratt has suggested an approach which generalises the Kahn networks in a different manner). What we hope to have shown is that four kinds of operator — namely atomic action (α.), summation (+), product (&β or |) and encapsulation (/β or \β) — together give great expressive power, and moreover satisfy interesting algebraic identities.