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I believe I once had a proof of this proposition, but it's been lost to the mists of time and old hard drives, so who knows if it was correct, and try as I might I can't seem to reproduce it.

Is it possible, in Melliès' tensorial logic, to give a proof of ¬(¬1 ⊗ ¬1) (a.k.a. 1 ⅋ 1)? Equivalently, is there an arrow in a dialogue category (with monoidal unit 1 and negation functor ¬) from ¬1 to 1?

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2 Answers 2

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The formula $\lnot(\lnot 1\otimes\lnot 1)$ is not provable. This is similar to the non-provability of $1⅋1$ in linear logic without mix.

If you want to see it directly in tensorial logic, simply observe that, by cut-elimination (which holds in tensorial logic) and reversibility of the $\lnot$-right and $\otimes$-left rules, derivability of $\vdash\lnot(\lnot 1\otimes\lnot 1)$ is equivalent to derivability of $\lnot 1,\lnot 1\vdash\bot$, which may only come from a proof of $\lnot 1\vdash 1$, which is unprovable because no rule (except cut) admits such a sequent as its conclusion, as shown by a straightforward inspection of the various rules (cf. for instance p.84 of Melliès habilitation thesis).

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  • $\begingroup$ Apologies for the notation. I should have said 1 — I've edited the question. $\endgroup$
    – Twey
    Commented Oct 19, 2018 at 20:24
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    $\begingroup$ I have to say, this is very surprising to me in a game-semantic sense. Surely it's always possible to win the dialogue game represented by ¬(¬1 ⊗ ¬1). $\endgroup$
    – Twey
    Commented Oct 19, 2018 at 20:51
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    $\begingroup$ I honestly don't know the exact definition of innocent sequential strategy (the one corresponding to tensorial logic) so I can't tell you what goes wrong. I'm pretty sure that it has to do with the fact that the two copies of $1$ are in parallel here, which is precisely the intuition behind the mix rule... but I don't know, it's a good question. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 19:11
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To add a semantic argument: models of tensor logic are given by symmetric monoidal categories with an exponentiating object $\bot$ serving as pole; negation is then given by $\neg A = \bot^A$. For example, one may choose any object of a symmetric monoidal closed category as pole, and degenerate special cases of this are given by abelian groups viewed as discrete categories. Now take eg the additive group of integers, and $1$ as pole. Then an arrow $\bot\otimes\bot\to\bot$ in the model would mean that $1+1=1$.

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