The Theoretical Aspects of the Optimal Fixedpoint
Zohar Manna, Adi Shamir · SIAM Journal on Computing · 1976
In this paper we define a new type of fixedpoint of recursive definitions and investigate some of its properties. This optimal fixedpoint (which always uniquely exists) contains, in some sense, the maximal amount of “interesting” information which can be extracted from the recursive definition, and it may be strictly more defined than the program’s least fixedpoint. This fixedpoint can be the basis for assigning a new semantics to recursive programs.