Categorical Stochastic Processes and Likelihood

We take a category-theoretic perspective on the relationship between probabilistic modeling and gradient based optimization. We define two extensions of function composition to stochastic process subordination: one based on a co-Kleisli category and one based on the parameterization of a category with a Lawvere theory. We show how these extensions relate to the category of Markov kernels Stoch through a pushforward procedure.We extend stochastic processes to parametric statistical models and define a way to compose the likelihood functions of these models. We demonstrate how the maximum likelihood estimation procedure defines a family of identity-on-objects functors from categories of statistical models to the category of supervised learning algorithms Learn.Code to accompany this paper can be found on GitHub (https://github.com/dshieble/Categorical_Stochastic_Processes_and_Likelihood).

Petri nets based on Lawvere theories

We give a definition of Q-net, a generalization of Petri nets based on a Lawvere theory Q, for which many existing variants of Petri nets are a special case. This definition is functorial with respect to change in Lawvere theory, and we exploit this to explore the relationships between different kinds of Q-nets. To justify our definition of Q-net, we construct a family of adjunctions for each Lawvere theory explicating the way in which Q-nets present free models of Q in Cat. This gives a functorial description of the operational semantics for an arbitrary category of Q-nets. We show how this can be used to construct the semantics for Petri nets, pre-nets, integer nets, and elementary net systems.

Internal coalgebras in cocomplete categories: Generalizing the Eilenberg–Watts theorem

The category of internal coalgebras in a cocomplete category [Formula: see text] with respect to a variety [Formula: see text] is equivalent to the category of left adjoint functors from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]. This can be seen best when considering such coalgebras as finite coproduct preserving functors from [Formula: see text], the dual of the Lawvere theory of [Formula: see text], into [Formula: see text]: coalgebras are restrictions of left adjoints and any such left adjoint is the left Kan extension of a coalgebra along the embedding of [Formula: see text] into [Formula: see text]. Since [Formula: see text]-coalgebras in the variety [Formula: see text] for rings [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are nothing but left [Formula: see text]-, right [Formula: see text]-bimodules, the equivalence above generalizes the Eilenberg–Watts theorem and all its previous generalizations. By generalizing and strengthening Bergman’s completeness result for categories of internal coalgebras in varieties, we also prove that the category of coalgebras in a locally presentable category [Formula: see text] is locally presentable and comonadic over [Formula: see text] and, hence, complete in particular. We show, moreover, that Freyd’s canonical constructions of internal coalgebras in a variety define left adjoint functors. Special instances of the respective right adjoints appear in various algebraic contexts and, in the case where [Formula: see text] is a commutative variety, are coreflectors from the category [Formula: see text] into [Formula: see text].