In Isabelle, I have defined a function f:'a -> nat where 'a is some algebraic structure that extends a monoid (i.e. a group, semiring, ring, integral domain, field, ...).
I would like to use the output of this function as "coefficients" for my type 'a in other constructs. That is, if x:'a and n:nat, I would like to be able to use some operation ·:'a -> nat -> 'a that allows me to tell Isabelle that n·x = x + x + ... + x.
By searching a bit, I found the "Power.thy" theory and, in a sense, it does what I want. However, it does it for the "multiplicative version" of my problem. This is an issue if I want to change 'a for e.g. the integers. Using it would mean that instead of computing n·x, Isabelle would do x^n. Is there an analogous version to "Power.thy" that does what I want? Or are there any other ways to circumvent this problem?
I do not know of any predefined constant that implements such an operation, but it can easily be implemented by iterating addition, e.g., using comppow on nat:
definition scale :: "nat => 'a => 'a" where
"scale a n = ((plus a) ^^ n) 0"
where plus refers to the addition operation of your structure and 0 is the neutral element. If you are using the arithmetic type classes from Isabelle/HOL, you should add the sort constraint 'a :: monoid to scale's type.
There is also a type class operation scaleR in Complex_Main that implements such a coefficient scaling operation, but it allows real numbers, not only nats, so your structure might not satisfy all the required axioms (type class real_vector).