A unifying view of abstract domain design

The concept of abstract interpretation was introduced by Patrick and Radhia Cousot [1977, 1979] in order to formal- ize static program analyses. Within this framework, our goal is to offer a unify- ing view on operators for enhancing and simplifying abstract domains. Enhanc- ing and simplifying operators are viewed, respectively, as domain refine- ments and inverses of domain refine- ments. This new unifying viewpoint makes both the understanding and the design of operators on abstract domains much simpler.