Kozen, Dexter2008-03-142008-03-142008-03-14https://hdl.handle.net/1813/10173We develop a coalgebraic theory of Kleene algebra with tests (KAT) along the lines of Rutten (1998) for Kleene algebra (KA) and Chen and Pucella (2003) for a limited version of KAT, resolving two open problems of Chen and Pucella. Our treatment includes a simple definition of the Brzozowski derivative for KAT expressions and an automata-theoretic interpretation involving automata on guarded strings. We also give a complexity analysis, showing that an efficient implementation of coinductive equivalence proofs in this setting is tantamount to a standard automata-theoretic construction. It follows that coinductive equivalence proofs can be generated automatically in PSPACE. This matches the bound of Worthington (2008) for the automatic generation of equational proofs in KAT.Kleene algebraKleene algebra with testsBrzozowski derivativecoalgebracoinduction