A Cartesian Closed Category for Random Variables

Abstract: We present a novel, yet rather simple construction within the traditional framework of Scott domains to provide semantics to probabilistic programming, thus obtaining a solution to a long-standing open problem in this area. Unlike current main approaches that employ some probability measures or continuous valuations on non-standard or rather complex structures, we use the Scott domain of random variables from a standard sample space -- the unit interval or the Cantor space -- to any given Scott domain. The map taking any such random variable to its corresponding probability distribution provides an effectively given, Scott continuous surjection onto the probabilistic power domain of the underlying Scott domain, establishing a new basic result in classical domain theory. We obtain a Cartesian closed category by enriching the category of Scott domains to capture the equivalence of random variables on these domains. The construction of the domain of random variables on this enriched category forms a strong commutative monad, which is suitable for defining the semantics of probabilistic programming.