Domain-theoretic models of parametric polymorphism

We present a domain-theoretic model of parametric polymorphism based on admissible per’s over a domain-theoretic model of the untyped lambda calculus. The model is shown to be a model of Abadi & Plotkin’s logic for parametricity, by the construction of an LAPL-structure as defined by the authors in [7, 5]. This construction gives formal proof of solutions to a large class of recursive domain equations, which we explicate. As an example of a computation in the model, we explicitly describe the natural numbers object obtained using parametricity. The theory of admissible per’s can be considered a domain theory for (impredicative) polymorphism. By studying various categories of admissible and chain complete per’s and their relations, we discover a picture very similar to that of domain theory.