Questions tagged [computability-theory]
computable sets and functions, Turing degrees, c.e. degrees, models of computability, primitive recursion, oracle computation, models of computability, decision problems, undecidability, Turing jump, halting problem, notions of computable randomness, computable model theory, computable equivalence relation theory, arithmetic and hyperarithmetic hierarchy, infinitary computability, $\alpha$-recursion, complexity theory.
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What are the most attractive Turing undecidable problems in mathematics?
What are the most attractive Turing undecidable problems in mathematics?
There are thousands of examples, so please post here only the most attractive, best examples. Some examples already appear on ...
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11
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On mathematical arguments against Quantum computing
Quantum computing is a very active and rapidly expanding field of research. Many companies and research institutes are spending a lot on this futuristic and potentially game-changing technology. Some ...
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How feasible is it to prove Kazhdan's property (T) by a computer?
Recently, I have proved that Kazhdan's property (T) is theoretically provable
by computers (arXiv:1312.5431,
explained below), but I'm quite lame with computers and have
no idea what they actually can ...
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Will this Turing machine find a proof of its halting?
Consider the following Turing machine $M$: it searches over valid ZFC proofs, in lexicographic order, and if it finds a proof that $M$ halts, then it halts.
If we fix a particular model of Turing ...
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Can a group be a universal Turing machine?
This question was inspired by this blog post of Jordan Ellenberg.
Define a "computable group" to be an at most countable group $G$ whose elements can be represented by finite binary strings, with the ...
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Succinctly naming big numbers: ZFC versus Busy-Beaver
Years ago, I wrote an essay called Who Can Name the Bigger Number?, which posed the following challenge:
You have fifteen seconds. Using standard math notation, English words, or both, name a single ...
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Which graphs are Cayley graphs?
Every group presentation determines the corresponding Cayley graph, which has a node for each group element, and arrows labeled with the generators to get from one group element to another.
My main ...
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Decidability of chess on an infinite board
The recent question Do there exist chess positions that require exponentially many moves to reach? of Tim Chow reminds me of a problem I have been interested in. Is chess with finitely many men on an ...
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Are the two meanings of "undecidable" related?
I am usually confused by questions of the type "could such and such a problem be undecidable", because as far as I know there are two distinct possible meanings of "undecidable". ...
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Does an existence of large cardinals have implications in number theory or combinatorics?
Does an existence of large cardinals have implications in more down-to-earth fields like number theory, finite combinatorics, graph theory, Ramsey theory or computability theory? Are there any ...
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How large is TREE(3)?
Friedman, in _Lectures notes on enormous integers shows that TREE(3) is much larger than n(4), itself bounded below by $A^{A(187195)}(3)$ (where $A$ is the Ackerman function and exponentiation ...
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"Simpler" statements equivalent to Con(PA) or Con(ZFC)?
Given any reasonable formal system F (e.g., Peano Arithmetic or ZFC), we all know that one can construct a Turing machine that runs forever iff F is consistent, by enumerating the theorems of F and ...
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What do we know about the computable surreal numbers?
The surreal numbers are built up in a natural iterative process, by which at any ordinal stage, if one has two sets of surreal numbers $L$ and $R$, with every number $x_L$ in $L$ strictly below every ...
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Is there a computable model of ZFC?
Background
Assuming ZFC is consistent, then by downward Löwenheim–Skolem, there is a countable model (M,$\in$) of ZFC. Since the universe M is countable, we may as well think of it as actually being ...
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Is the area of the Mandelbrot provably computable?
Recall the Mandelbrot set $M$ is the set of points $c$ in the complex plane such that the sequence $z_0 = 0, z_{n+1} = z_n^2 + c$ is bounded. It is well-known that $M$ is a compact set of positive ...
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Is it decidable to check if an element has finite order or not?
Suppose we have a finitely presented group $G$ with decidable word problem. Is it decidable to check whether a given element $x\in G$ has finite order or infinite?
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Using Busy Beavers to prove conjectures
I've been pondering some stuff on Shtetl Optimized where Yedidia and Aaronson construct Turing machines that will only halt if (e.g.) the Riemann Hypothesis is false, or Goldbach's conjecture is false....
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Is there a known Turing machine which halts if and only if the Collatz conjecture has a counterexample?
Some of the simplest and most interesting unproved conjectures in mathematics are Goldbach's conjecture, the Riemann hypothesis, and the Collatz conjecture.
Goldbach's conjecture asserts that every ...
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Decision problems for which it is unknown whether they are decidable
In computability theory, what are examples of decision problems of which it is not known whether they are decidable?
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Why is uncomputability of the spectral decomposition not a problem?
Below, we compute with exact real numbers using a realistic / conservative model of computability like Type Two Effectivity.
Assume that there is an algorithm that, given a symmetric real matrix $M$, ...
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Does "every" first-order theory have a finitely axiomatizable conservative extension?
I originally asked this question on math.stackexchange.com here.
There's a famous theorem (due to Montague) that states that if $\sf ZFC$ is consistent then it cannot be finitely axiomatized. ...
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Does the exact pair phenomenon for partial orders occur in your area of mathematics?
Suppose that I have a partial order P and an increasing sequence $a_0< a_1<a_2<\cdots$ of elements of $P$. A pair of elements (b,c) from P is said to be an exact pair for this sequence, if
...
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What's a magical theorem in logic?
Some theorems are magical: their hypotheses are easy to meet, and when invoked (as lemmas) in the midst of an otherwise routine proof, they deliver the desired conclusion more or less straightaway&...
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Are surjectivity and injectivity of polynomial functions from $\mathbb{Q}^n$ to $\mathbb{Q}$ algorithmically decidable?
Is there an algorithm which, given a polynomial $f \in \mathbb{Q}[x_1, \dots, x_n]$,
decides whether the mapping $f: \mathbb{Q}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{Q}$ is surjective,
respectively, injective? --
And ...
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Do we expect that sufficiently large computable ordinals settle every question of arithmetic?
I came across a post by Ron Maimon on physics.SE that makes what seems to me to be a very interesting conjecture I've never seen before about what it would take to settle every question of arithmetic. ...
- 118k
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Godel on recursion-theoretic hierarchies
At the end of his excellent article, "The Emergence of Descriptive Set Theory" (http://math.bu.edu/people/aki/2.pdf), Kanamori writes:
"Another mathematical eternal return: Toward the end of his ...
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Given a polynomial-time algorithm, can we compute an explicit polynomial time bound just from the program?
Question. Given a Turing-machine program $e$, which
is guaranteed to run in polynomial time, can we computably
find such a polynomial?
In other words, is there a
computable function $e\mapsto p_e$, ...
- 236k
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How (non-)computable is set theory?
Here is a naive outsiders perspective on set theory: A typical set-theoretical result involves constructing new models of set theory from given ones (typically with different theories for the original ...
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Physics and Church–Turing Thesis
Is there constructed some set of physical laws from which we can logically obtain that any function that can be implemented in some device is Turing computable?
EDIT
I believe that if we restrict ...
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Is it decidable whether or not a collection of integer matrices generates a free group?
Suppose we have integer matrices $A_1,\ldots,A_n\in\operatorname{GL}(n,\mathbb Z)$. Define $\varphi:F_n\to\operatorname{GL}(n,\mathbb Z)$ by $x_i\mapsto A_i$. Is there an algorithm to decide whether ...
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Is the theory of categories decidable?
There are a lot of theorems in basic homological algebra, such as the five lemma or the snake lemma, that seem like they'd be more easily proven by computer than by hand. This led me to consider the ...
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"Natural" undecidable problems not reducible to the halting problem
There is a lot of known examples of undecidable problems, a large amount of them not directly related to turing machines or equivalent models of computations, for example here: https://en.m.wikipedia....
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Determining if a rational function has a subtraction-free expression
This question was first asked by Mehtaab Sawhney in Alex Postnikov's combinatorics class.
Given a rational function $F=P(x_1,...,x_n)/Q(x_1,...,x_n)$ with (say) integer coefficients, it is often of ...
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Can a string's sophistication be defined in an unsophisticated way?
This question is about sophistication, a way of measuring the amount of "interesting, non-random information" in a binary string, which was proposed by Kolmogorov and others in the 1980s. I'll define ...
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Between mu- and primitive recursion
It is well known that primitive recursion is not powerful enough
to express all functions, Ackermann function being probably the best
known example.
Now, in the logic courses (that I have had look at)...
user10891
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On certain representations of algebraic numbers in terms of trigonometric functions
Let's say that a real number has a simple trigonometric representation, if it can be represented as a product of zero or more rational powers of positive integers and zero or more (positive or ...
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Can We Decide Whether Small Computer Programs Halt?
The undecidability of the halting problem states that there is no general procedure for deciding whether an arbitrary sufficiently complex computer program will halt or not.
Are there some large $n$ ...
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Is deciding whether a Turing machine *provably* runs forever equivalent to the halting problem?
Assume for this question that ZF set theory is sound.
Now consider the language "PROVELOOP," which consists of all descriptions of Turing machines M, for which there exists a ZF proof that M runs ...
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Defining computable functions categorically
Computable functions may be defined in terms of Turing machines or recursive functions, or some other model of computation. We normally say that the choice doesn't matter, because all models of ...
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Are any natural examples of Gödel speed-up known?
In 1936 Gödel announced a theorem to the effect that proofs of certain theorems $T_1,T_2,\ldots$ become dramatically shorter when one passes from a formal system, such as Peano arithmetic PA, to a ...
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Why isn't this a computable description of the ordinal of ZF?
In a previous MO question, I was told by several commenters that
(a) it's known that there exists a computable ordinal $\alpha_{ZF}$ that "encodes the strength of ZF set theory" (i.e., a least ...
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Inverse Ackermann - primitive recursive or not?
I wanted to put this originally on math.stackexchange, since I considered it to be a straightforward question and probably a fairly known fact. After I failed to solve the problem, I browsed through ...
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The problem of finding the first digit in Graham's number
Motivation
In this BBC video about infinity they mention Graham's number. In the second part, Graham mentions that "maybe no one will ever know what [the first] digit is". This made me think: Could ...
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Decidability of 3 body problem
Is there a result showing that something along the lines of the three body problem is undecidable? Or are they known to be decidable or neither?
I mean problems along the lines of the following ...
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Is rule 30 Turing complete? Is there a proof that it isn't?
It is well known that the elementary cellular automaton known as rule 110 is Turing complete.
Its cousin rule 30 also produces complicated behaviour. When I read Wolfram's a New Kind of Science (in ...
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Is the cohomology ring of a finite group computable?
Is there an algorithm which halts on all inputs that takes as input a finite group ($p$-group if you like) and outputs a finite presentation of the cohomology ring (with trivial coefficients $\mathbb{...
- 3,230
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Busy Beaver modulo 2
There is well-known Rado's "Busy Beaver" sequence — the maximal number of marks which a halting Turing machine with n states, 2 symbols (blank, mark) can produce onto an initially blank two-way ...
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Algorithmically unsolvable problems in topology
This question is inspired by a paper by B. Poonen that appeared on the arxiv some time ago: http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0299. The paper gives a sample of algorithmically unsolvable problems from various ...
25
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Are compact topological $n$-manifolds recursively enumerable?
Earlier this year it was asked on MO, "Are there only countably many compact topological manifolds?" Thanks to Cheeger and Kister, the answer is yes. On the other hand, Manolescu recently debunked ...
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Are sums of sequences decidable?
Suppose that $f,g$ are rational functions with integer coefficients such that $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}f(n)$ and $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}g(n)$ both converge. Is it decidable whether
$\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}f(n)=\...
