In mathematical logic, the hypersequent framework is an extension of the proof-theoretical framework of sequent calculi used in structural proof theory to provide analytic calculi for logics that are not captured in the sequent framework.
A hypersequent is usually taken to be a finite multiset of ordinary sequents, written The sequents making up a hypersequent are called components.
The precise formula interpretation depends on the considered logic.
Formally, a hypersequent is usually taken to be a finite multiset of ordinary sequents, written The sequents making up a hypersequent consist of pairs of multisets of formulae, and are called the components of the hypersequent.
Variants defining hypersequents and sequents in terms of sets or lists instead of multisets are also considered, and depending on the considered logic the sequents can be classical or intuitionistic.
The rules for the propositional connectives usually are adaptions of the corresponding standard sequent rules with an additional side hypersequent, also called hypersequent context.
Due to the additional structure in the hypersequent setting, the structural rules are considered in their internal and external variants.
The internal weakening and internal contraction rules are the adaptions of the corresponding sequent rules with an added hypersequent context:
Soundness of these rules is closely connected to the formula interpretation of the hypersequent structure, nearly always as some form of disjunction.
The precise formula interpretation depends on the considered logic, see below for some examples.
Hypersequents have been used to obtain analytic calculi for modal logics, for which analytic sequent calculi proved elusive.
In a standard hypersequent calculus for this logic[1] the formula interpretation is as above, and the propositional and structural rules are the ones from the previous section.
Admissibility of a suitably formulated version of the cut rule can be shown by a syntactic argument on the structure of derivations or by showing completeness of the calculus without the cut rule directly using the semantics of S5.
In line with the importance of modal logic S5, a number of alternative calculi have been formulated.
[2][3][1][4][5][6][7] Hypersequent calculi have also been proposed for many other modal logics.
[6][7][8][9] Hypersequent calculi based on intuitionistic or single-succedent sequents have been used successfully to capture a large class of intermediate logics, i.e., extensions of intuitionistic propositional logic.
Since the hypersequents in this setting are based on single-succedent sequents, they have the following form: The standard formula interpretation for such an hypersequent is Most hypersequent calculi for intermediate logics include the single-succedent versions of the propositional rules given above and a selection of the structural rules.
The characteristics of a particular intermediate logic are mostly captured using a number of additional structural rules.
E.g., the standard calculus for intermediate logic LC, sometimes also called Gödel–Dummett logic, contains additionally the so-called communication rule:[1] Hypersequent calculi for many other intermediate logics have been introduced,[1][10][11][12] and there are very general results about cut elimination in such calculi.
[1][13][14] The hypersequent structure seem to have appeared first in [2] under the name of cortege, to obtain a calculus for the modal logic S5.
It seems to have been developed independently in,[3] also for treating modal logics, and in the influential,[1] where calculi for modal, intermediate and substructural logics are considered, and the term hypersequent is introduced.