Calculating the Fundamental Group of the Circle in Homotopy Type Theory

Recent work on homotopy type theory exploits an exciting new correspondence between Martin-Lof´s dependent type theory and the mathematical disciplines of category theory and homotopy theory. The mathematics suggests new principles to add to type theory, while the type theory can be used in novel ways to do computer-checked proofs in a proof assistant. In this paper, we formalize a basic result in algebraic topology, that the fundamental group of the circle is the integers. Our proof illustrates the new features of homotopy type theory, such as higher inductive types and Voevodsky´s univalence axiom. It also introduces a new method for calculating the path space of a type, which has proved useful in many other examples.