Linear logic for constructive mathematics

Michael Shulman

Published 2018-05-19Version 1

We show that numerous distinctive concepts of constructive mathematics arise automatically from an interpretation of "linear higher-order logic" into intuitionistic higher-order logic via a Chu construction. This includes apartness relations, complemented subsets, anti-subgroups and anti-ideals, strict and non-strict order pairs, cut-valued metrics, and apartness spaces. We also explain the constructive bifurcation of classical concepts using the choice between multiplicative and additive linear connectives. Linear logic thus systematically "constructivizes" classical definitions and deals automatically with the resulting bookkeeping, and could potentially be used directly as a basis for constructive mathematics in place of intuitionistic logic.