A fully abstract game semantics for finite nondeterminism

A game semantics of finite nondeterminism is proposed. In this model, a strategy may make a choice between different moves in a given situation; moreover, strategies carry extra information about their possible divergent behaviour. A Cartesian closed category is built and a model of a simple, higher-order nondeterministic imperative language is given. This model is shown to be fully abstract, with respect to an equivalence based on both safety and liveness properties, by means of a factorization theorem which states that every nondeterministic strategy is the composite of a deterministic strategy with a nondeterministic oracle.