Questions tagged [decidability]
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11 questions from the last 365 days
3
votes
1
answer
208
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Is decomposability of integer polynomials over the rational numbers an undecidable problem?
By a decomposition of a polynomial $F(x)$ over a field $K$ we mean writing $F(x)$ as
$$
F(x)=G(H(x)) \quad(G(x), H(x) \in K[x]),
$$
which is nontrivial if $\operatorname{deg} G(x)>1$ and $\...
1
vote
0
answers
151
views
Decide if a group is abelian
Let $G = \langle X: R\rangle$ be a finitely presented group. The following problem seems very natural to me, yet I cannot find any reference for it: Decide if $G$ is abelian or not.
With a reduction ...
2
votes
0
answers
78
views
Is this variant of post correspondence problem undecidable?
The post correspondence problem, as defined by wikipedia, is undecidable. The problem is defined as follows.
Let $A$ be an alphabet with at least two symbols. The input of the problem consists of ...
1
vote
0
answers
119
views
What is the minimal length of an undecidable sentence in those ZFC related theories?
If we measure the length of a sentence by the number of occurrences of atomic subformulas in it. So, for example in set theory written in $\sf FOL(\in)$, the length of a sentence is the number of ...
10
votes
0
answers
274
views
Open problems in complete theories
It is well-known that every complete recursively enumerable first-order theory is decidable. Does that mean that such theories are "trivial", or are there still interesting open problems ...
14
votes
2
answers
851
views
Examples of finitely presented subgroups of $\operatorname{GL}(n,\mathbb{Z})$ with unsolvable decision problems
$\DeclareMathOperator\GL{GL}\DeclareMathOperator\Aut{Aut}$Does there exist a finitely presented subgroup of $\GL(n,\mathbb{Z})$ for which it is known that the conjugacy problem is unsolvable (if yes, ...
10
votes
1
answer
418
views
Is the theory of $(\operatorname{Ord}, <)$ decidable?
Over a sufficiently strong second-order theory (such as Morse-Kelley set theory), it's possible to define the truth of all first-order formulae in the language of sets. This allows us to construct the ...
1
vote
1
answer
127
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Can we effectively define a theory of all upward absolute sentences over theories of hereditarily bounded sets?
Lets' take the theory of hereditarily bounded sets[1][2]. We know that every $S_k$ where $k \in \omega$ is decidable and has as its canonical model the set ${\sf H}_k$ of all sets hereditarily of size ...
5
votes
1
answer
197
views
Can one compute the automorphism group of a curve of genus >1?
Given a sufficiently nice perfect field $k$ and a smooth projective curve $C$ of genus $g_C>1$ over $k$, can one compute the automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(C)$? It is known that ${\rm Aut}(C)$ is ...
14
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Guaranteed correct digits of elementary expressions
Let $E$ be the set of elementary expressions, defined as the smallest set of mathematical expressions such that $1 \in E$, and if $a,b \in E$ then $a + b$, $a - b$, $ab$, $a/b$, $\exp(a)$, $\log(a)$ ...
8
votes
1
answer
1k
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Why don't Zeilberger and Gosper's algorithms contradict Richardson's theorem?
Richardson's theorem proves that whether an expression A is equal to zero is undecidable. A is in this case an expression, constructed from $x,e^x,\sin(x)$ and the constant function $\pi$ and $\ln(2)$ ...