Types, equations, dimensions and the Pi theorem

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Authors: Nicola Botta, Patrik Jansson
Cited by: 0

Abstract

The languages of mathematical physics and modelling are endowed with a rich ``grammar of dimensions'' that common abstractions of programming languages fail to represent. We propose a dependently typed domain-specific language (embedded in Idris) that captures this grammar. We apply it to formalize basic notions of dimensional analysis: those of dimension function, physical quantity, homomorphic measurement, the covariance principle and Buckingham's Pi theorem. We hope that the language makes mathematical physics more accessible to computer scientists and functional programming more palatable to modellers and physicists.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Distributed and Parallel Computing Systems Model-Driven Software Engineering Techniques Scientific Computing and Data Management

Publication details

Journal / source
Journal of Functional Programming
Volume
Volume 36
Publication date
28 June 2026
Language
EN