Generalized connectives for multiplicative linear logic

In this paper we investigate the notion of generalized connective for multiplicative linear logic. We introduce a notion of orthogonality for partitions of a finite set and we study the family of connectives which can be described by two orthogonal sets of partitions. We prove that there is a special class of connectives that can never be decomposed by means of the multiplicative conjunction and disjunction `, providing an infinite family of non-decomposable connectives, called Girard connectives. We show that each Girard connective can be naturally described by a type (a set of partitions equal to its double-orthogonal) and its orthogonal type. In addition, one of these two types is the union of the types associated to a family of MLL-formulas in disjunctive normal form, and these formulas only differ for the cyclic permutations of their atoms.