Nominal logic is a variant of first-order logic in which abstract
syntax with names and binding is formalized in terms of two basic
operations: name-swapping and freshness. It relies
on two important principles: equivariance (validity is
preserved by name-swapping), and fresh name generation
(“new” or fresh names can always be chosen). It is inspired by a
particular class of models for abstract syntax trees involving names
and binding, drawing on ideas from Fraenkel-Mostowski set theory:
finite-support models in which each value can depend on only
finitely many names.
Although nominal logic is sound with respect to such models, it is
not complete. In this paper we review nominal logic and show why
finite-support models are insufficient both in theory and practice.
We then identify (up to isomorphism) the class of models with respect
to which nominal logic is complete: ideal-supported models
in which the supports of values are elements of a proper ideal on
the set of names.
We also investigate an appropriate generalization of Herbrand models
to nominal logic. After adjusting the syntax of nominal logic to
include constants denoting names, we generalize universal
theories to nominal-universal theories and prove that each
such theory has an Herbrand model.
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