On the Resolution Semiring

In this thesis, we study a semiring structure with a product based on theresolution rule of logic programming. This mathematical object was introducedinitially in the setting of the geometry of interaction program in order to modelthe cut-elimination procedure of linear logic. It provides us with an algebraicand abstract setting, while being presented in a syntactic and concrete way, inwhich a theoretical study of computation can be carried on.We will review first the interactive interpretation of proof theory withinthis semiring via the categorical axiomatization of the geometry of interactionapproach. This interpretation establishes a way to translate functional programsinto a very simple form of logic programs.Secondly, complexity theory problematics will be considered: while thenilpotency problem in the semiring we study is undecidable in general, it willappear that certain restrictions allow for characterizations of (deterministicand non-deterministic) logarithmic space and (deterministic) polynomial timecomputation.