Semantic Channel Theory: Deductive Compression and Structural Fidelity for Multi-Agent Communication
For multi-agent communication systems, this provides a theoretical foundation for semantic compression and fidelity, identifying fundamental limitations like the semantic bottleneck in broadcast settings.
The paper develops a rigorous framework for semantic communication that integrates formal proof systems with Shannon theory, introducing distortion measures and invariants. The key result is a deductive compression gain where minimum block length depends on irredundant core size rather than full knowledge-base size, demonstrated on a Datalog instance.
Shannon's information theory deliberately excludes message semantics. This paper develops a rigorous framework for semantic communication that integrates formal proof systems with Shannon-theoretic tools. We introduce an axiomatic information model comprising Lsem-definable state sets linked by computable enabling maps, and define the semantic channel as a composition of Markov kernels whose supports respect the enabling structure. A fixed proof system induces an irredundant semantic core and a derivation-depth stratification, enabling four distortion measures of increasing semantic depth: Hamming, closure, depth, and a parameterized composite. Six families of computable semantic channel invariants are defined and their inter-relationships established, including a data processing bound, a semantic Fano bound, and an ideal-channel collapse theorem. The central quantitative result is a deductive compression gain: under closure-based fidelity, the minimum block length is determined by the irredundant core size rather than the full knowledge-base size. We instantiate the framework for heterogeneous multi-agent communication, introducing an overlap decomposition that yields necessary and sufficient conditions for closure-reliable communication. A semantic bottleneck phenomenon is identified in broadcast settings: vocabulary mismatch imposes irreducible fidelity limitations even over noiseless carriers. All results are verified on an explicit Datalog instance.