Bialgebraic methods and modal logic in structural operational semantics

Bialgebraic semantics, invented a decade ago by Turi and Plotkin, is an approach to formal reasoning about well-behaved structural operational semantics (SOS). An extension of algebraic and coalgebraic methods, it abstracts from concrete notions of syntax and system behaviour, thus treating various kinds of operational descriptions in a uniform fashion. In this paper, bialgebraic semantics is combined with a coalgebraic approach to modal logic in a novel, general approach to proving the compositionality of process equivalences for languages defined by structural operational semantics. To prove compositionality, one provides a notion of behaviour for logical formulas, and defines an SOS-like specification of modal operators which reflects the original SOS specification of the language. This approach can be used to define SOS congruence formats as well as to prove compositionality for specific languages and equivalences.