Exponential Elimination for Bicartesian Closed Categorical Combinators

Paper in proceeding, 2019

Categorical combinators offer a simpler alternative to typed lambda calculi for static analysis and implementation. Since categorical combinators are accompanied by a rich set of conversion rules which arise from categorical laws, they also offer a plethora of opportunities for program optimization. It is unclear, however, how such rules can be applied in a systematic manner to eliminate intermediate values such as exponentials, the categorical equivalent of higher-order functions, from a program built using combinators. Exponential elimination simplifies static analysis and enables a simple closure-free implementation of categorical combinators--reasons for which it has been sought after. In this paper, we prove exponential elimination for bicartesian closed categorical (BCC) combinators using normalization. We achieve this by showing that BCC terms can be normalized to normal forms which obey a weak subformula property. We implement normalization using Normalization by Evaluation, and also show that the generated normal forms are correct using logical relations.