Regular expressions for polynomial coalgebras

For polynomial set functors G, we introduce a language of expressions for describing elements of final G-coalgebra. We show that every state of a finite G-coalgebra corresponds to an expression in the language, in the sense that they both have the same semantics. Conversely, we give a compositional synthesis algorithm which transforms every expression into a finite G-coalgebra. The language of expressions is equipped with an equational system that is sound, complete and expressive with respect to G-bisimulation.