Weierstrass Theorem

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Weierstrass Theorem University of Bath PHD Use of algebraically independent numbers in computation Elsonbaty, Ahmed Award date: 2004 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 Use of algebraically independent numbers in computation submitted by Ahmed Elsonbaty for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Bath 2004 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation. Signature of Author ......................................................................................................... Ahmed Elsonbaty UMI Number: U601777 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U601777 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ;1 ft i- o r\ r ' ■ 33 d u I-.... l ..,Q f h r o . •JS.WJJi/SSfiaESifceaW Dedication Thanks to God with His beautiful names and His high attributes. Without His approval nothing can happen. I thank him for giving me a very good supporting family. My father, God bless him, was the one who encouraged me to read and seek knowledge despite the fact that he did not have the chance to do so. He used to value and appreciate knowledge and knowledgeable people and he gave me the chance to understand and appreciate why the Qura’n or simply the Koran begins the revelation with the verses {Read in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, who created, created man, out of a leech-like clot. Proclaim and thy Lord is most bountiful, He who taught (the use of) the pen, taught man that which he knew not.} [96:1-5] ( [S:V] here and in the other Koranic quotations denotes the chapter number and the verse or verses from the Koran to be translated into English ). For this and more I dedicate this little work to my beloved father Abd Elgwad Elsonbaty and all my teachers. Acknowledgements I want to thank the university of Ain Shams in Cairo and the Egyptian culture bureau in London for giving me this opportunity to study for my Ph.D. in Math­ ematics in the respectable university of Bath. They funded me and supervised my progress. I am very happy to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr. Daniel Richardson for his constant encouragement and endless support. He was very patient with me, helped me at very difficult times, gave me confidence and encouraged me to complete my research and write this thesis. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the department of computer science who were very helpful and kind. I am very happy also to thank all of our friends in Bath who helped me and my family and they never let us alone, especially Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas and Mr. Stanley Smith. I am really grateful to you and wish you the best. This is a very nice occasion to express my gratitude and love to my wife Nashwa Elbadawy who supports me in all times with confidence and belief. I am also grateful to our two little lovely daughters Hedaya and Maryam. Simply, you fill our life with happiness and give us hope for future. Lastly, I cannot forget to thank my friends and my big family in Egypt especially my mother. Her care, love and prayers for me, my brothers and sisters make a real difference. My mother, God bless you and bless all those I owe much. iii Abstract This thesis is concerned with the Zero testing problem for numbers and poly­ nomials presented in the form of polynomial terms i.e., trees with operators on the interior nodes and natural numbers and variables on the frontier. We attempt to decide whether or not such a tree represents the zero polynomial by substitut­ ing algebraically independent real numbers for the variables and attempting to decide whether or not the resulting constant is zero. We got a probabilistic zero recognition test for polynomials which is somewhat more expensive computationally than the usual probabilistic method of choosing random integers in a large interval and evaluating, but which depends on the ability to choose a random point in the unit cube and to approximate a polyno­ mial at that point. Counterexamples to the uniformity and the witness conjectures were discovered but the case of testing polynomials is still plausible. The method for finding counterexamples may help to resolve other related conjectures. We introduced family of new conjectures to deal with sets of constants like the Pfaffian constants defined by Pfaffian functions with rational coefficients and some boundary conditions. This thesis also introduces a new effective proof of the famous Lindemann the­ orem in the form which give us many sets of algebraically independent numbers and more than that it shows the lower bound (called transcendence measure) of some constants compared to the hypothetical ones. Extended Abstract This thesis is concerned with the Zero testing problem for numbers and poly­ nomials presented in the form of polynomial terms i.e., trees with operators on the interior nodes and natural numbers and variables on the frontier. Testing a number or a polynomial to check if it is zero or not is a fundamental problem in theoretical pure mathematics and in applications in all fields without exception; where we process statistical data and solve some equations. We attempt to decide whether or not such a tree represents the zero polynomial by substituting algebraically independent real numbers for the variables and at­ tempting to decide whether or not the resulting constant is zero. Prom this we get a probabilistic zero recognition test for polynomials which is somewhat more expensive computationally than the usual probabilistic method of choosing ran­ dom integers in a large interval and evaluating, but which depends on the ability to choose a random point in the unit cube and to approximate a polynomial at that point. We define Exp-Log expressions as expressions built up from the natural num­ bers using field operations, radicals, exponentials and logarithms. Let | V (E ) \ be the value of expression E\ given choice of principal branch. The Uniformity Conjecture (UC) claims that for expressions in expanded form ( i.e., for any exponential subexpression exp(>l) of E, we have | V{A) | < 1), a small multiple of the syntactic length bounds the number of decimal places needed to distinguish the defined number from zero, if it is non zero. The UC is a simple form of the family of the witness conjectures which may be stated as follows: For each positive rational number A T, denote by En the set of all nested radical exponential and logarithmic expressions A such that ifE is any subexpression of A, then AT1 < \V(E)\ < N. The Witness conjectures say that if A is in S ^, then there is a function u;;v(n) so that |V(i4)| < e~UN^ , where n is the length of A. The strong witness conjecture is that we can take ujn{u) = K n , where K depends on N, and the weak witness conjecture is that we can take un(ti) = K n , where K depends on N These conjectures imply a deterministic zero test for polynomials, which should be compared with the deterministic method of reducing to canonical form. One of the results of this research is that after spending some time trying to resolve the conjecture, counterexamples to the uniformity and the witness conjec­ tures were discovered. This opened a new page in this direction for more thoughts and trials of more sophisticated relations between the values and some param­ eter of the representation of a number e.g., syntactic length, height (maximum number), level of nesting or composition of the functions we call depth. It is notable that the community of exact geometric computation (EGC) has a theoretical-practical approach to the zero testing problem and a very interesting going project toward robust computation.
Recommended publications
  • Calcium: Computing in Exact Real and Complex Fields Fredrik Johansson
    Calcium: computing in exact real and complex fields Fredrik Johansson To cite this version: Fredrik Johansson. Calcium: computing in exact real and complex fields. ISSAC ’21, Jul 2021, Virtual Event, Russia. 10.1145/3452143.3465513. hal-02986375v2 HAL Id: hal-02986375 https://hal.inria.fr/hal-02986375v2 Submitted on 15 May 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Calcium: computing in exact real and complex fields Fredrik Johansson [email protected] Inria Bordeaux and Institut Math. Bordeaux 33400 Talence, France ABSTRACT This paper presents Calcium,1 a C library for exact computa- Calcium is a C library for real and complex numbers in a form tion in R and C. Numbers are represented as elements of fields suitable for exact algebraic and symbolic computation. Numbers Q¹a1;:::; anº where the extension numbers ak are defined symbol- ically. The system constructs fields and discovers algebraic relations are represented as elements of fields Q¹a1;:::; anº where the exten- automatically, handling algebraic and transcendental number fields sion numbers ak may be algebraic or transcendental. The system combines efficient field operations with automatic discovery and in a unified way.
    [Show full text]
  • Variable Planck's Constant
    Variable Planck’s Constant: Treated As A Dynamical Field And Path Integral Rand Dannenberg Ventura College, Physics and Astronomy Department, Ventura CA [email protected] [email protected] January 28, 2021 Abstract. The constant ħ is elevated to a dynamical field, coupling to other fields, and itself, through the Lagrangian density derivative terms. The spatial and temporal dependence of ħ falls directly out of the field equations themselves. Three solutions are found: a free field with a tadpole term; a standing-wave non-propagating mode; a non-oscillating non-propagating mode. The first two could be quantized. The third corresponds to a zero-momentum classical field that naturally decays spatially to a constant with no ad-hoc terms added to the Lagrangian. An attempt is made to calibrate the constants in the third solution based on experimental data. The three fields are referred to as actons. It is tentatively concluded that the acton origin coincides with a massive body, or point of infinite density, though is not mass dependent. An expression for the positional dependence of Planck’s constant is derived from a field theory in this work that matches in functional form that of one derived from considerations of Local Position Invariance violation in GR in another paper by this author. Astrophysical and Cosmological interpretations are provided. A derivation is shown for how the integrand in the path integral exponent becomes Lc/ħ(r), where Lc is the classical action. The path that makes stationary the integral in the exponent is termed the “dominant” path, and deviates from the classical path systematically due to the position dependence of ħ.
    [Show full text]
  • Semiclassical Unimodular Gravity
    Preprint typeset in JHEP style - PAPER VERSION Semiclassical Unimodular Gravity Bartomeu Fiol and Jaume Garriga Departament de F´ısica Fonamental i Institut de Ci`encies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, Mart´ıi Franqu`es 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: Classically, unimodular gravity is known to be equivalent to General Rel- ativity (GR), except for the fact that the effective cosmological constant Λ has the status of an integration constant. Here, we explore various formulations of unimod- ular gravity beyond the classical limit. We first consider the non-generally covariant action formulation in which the determinant of the metric is held fixed to unity. We argue that the corresponding quantum theory is also equivalent to General Relativity for localized perturbative processes which take place in generic backgrounds of infinite volume (such as asymptotically flat spacetimes). Next, using the same action, we cal- culate semiclassical non-perturbative quantities, which we expect will be dominated by Euclidean instanton solutions. We derive the entropy/area ratio for cosmological and black hole horizons, finding agreement with GR for solutions in backgrounds of infinite volume, but disagreement for backgrounds with finite volume. In deriving the arXiv:0809.1371v3 [hep-th] 29 Jul 2010 above results, the path integral is taken over histories with fixed 4-volume. We point out that the results are different if we allow the 4-volume of the different histories to vary over a continuum range. In this ”generalized” version of unimodular gravity, one recovers the full set of Einstein’s equations in the classical limit, including the trace, so Λ is no longer an integration constant.
    [Show full text]
  • Monodromies and Functional Determinants in the CFT Driven Quantum Cosmology
    Monodromies and functional determinants in the CFT driven quantum cosmology A.O.Barvinsky and D.V.Nesterov Theory Department, Lebedev Physics Institute, Leninsky Prospect 53, Moscow 119991, Russia Abstract We discuss the calculation of the reduced functional determinant of a special second order differential operator F = −d2/dτ 2 + g¨=g, g¨ ≡ d2g/dτ 2, with a generic function g(τ), subject to periodic boundary conditions. This implies the gauge-fixed path integral representation of this determinant and the monodromy method of its calculation. Motivations for this particular problem, coming from applications in quantum cosmology, are also briefly discussed. They include the problem of microcanonical initial conditions in cosmology driven by a conformal field theory, cosmological constant and cosmic microwave background problems. 1. Introduction Here we consider the class of problems involving the differential operator of the form d2 g¨ F = − + ; : (1.1) dτ 2 g where g = g(τ) is a rather generic function of its variable τ. From calculational viewpoint, the virtue of this operator is that g(τ) represents its explicit basis function { the solution of the homogeneous equation, F g(τ) = 0; (1.2) which immediately allows one to construct its second linearly independent solution τ dy Ψ(τ) = g(τ) (1.3) g2(y) τZ∗ and explicitly build the Green's function of F with appropriate boundary conditions. On the other hand, from physical viewpoint this operator is interesting because it describes long-wavelength per- turbations in early Universe, including the formation of observable CMB spectra [1, 2], statistical ensembles in quantum cosmology [3], etc.
    [Show full text]
  • This Article Was Published in an Elsevier Journal. the Attached Copy
    This article was published in an Elsevier journal. The attached copy is furnished to the author for non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the author’s institution, sharing with colleagues and providing to institution administration. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright Author's personal copy Theoretical Computer Science 394 (2008) 159–174 www.elsevier.com/locate/tcs Physical constraints on hypercomputation$ Paul Cockshotta,∗, Lewis Mackenziea, Greg Michaelsonb a Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom b School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom Abstract Many attempts to transcend the fundamental limitations to computability implied by the Halting Problem for Turing Machines depend on the use of forms of hypercomputation that draw on notions of infinite or continuous, as opposed to bounded or discrete, computation. Thus, such schemes may include the deployment of actualised rather than potential infinities of physical resources, or of physical representations of real numbers to arbitrary precision. Here, we argue that such bases for hypercomputation are not materially realisable and so cannot constitute new forms of effective calculability. c 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cosmological Constant Problem 1 Introduction
    The Cosmological Constant Problem and (no) solutions to it by Wolfgang G. Hollik 7/11/2017 Talk given at the Workshop Seminar Series on Vacuum Energy @ DESY. “Physics thrives on crisis. [... ] Unfortunately, we have run short on crisis lately.” (Steven Weinberg, 1989 [1]) 1 Introduction: the Cosmological Constant Besides the fact, that we are still running short on severe crises in physics also about 30 years after Weinberg’s statement, there is still yet no solution to what is called the “Cosmological Constant problem”. Neither is there any clue what the Cosmological Constant (CC) is made of and if the problem is indeed an outstanding problem. Weinberg defines and proves in his review on the Cosmological Constant [1] a “no-go” theorem. This no-go theorem is actually not a theorem on the smallness of the CC in the sense of a Vacuum Energy,1 it is rather a theorem prohibiting any kind of adjustment mechanisms that lead effectively to a universe with a flat and static (i.e. Minkowski) space-time metric in the presence of a CC. In other words: with a CC there is no Minkowski universe possible. An old crisis When Einstein first formulated his field equations for General Relativity, he was neither aware of a possible Cosmological Constant nor of an expanding universe solution to them. Originally, the proposed equations are 1 R g R = 8πG T , (1) µν − 2 µν − µν using Weinberg’s ( + ++)-metric. The matter content is given by the energy-stress tensor − Tµν, where the geometry of space-time is encoded in the Ricci tensor Rµν and the scalar µν curvature R = g Rµν of the metric gµν.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2001.00578V2 [Math.HO] 3 Aug 2021
    Errata and Addenda to Mathematical Constants Steven Finch August 3, 2021 Abstract. We humbly and briefly offer corrections and supplements to Mathematical Constants (2003) and Mathematical Constants II (2019), both published by Cambridge University Press. Comments are always welcome. 1. First Volume 1.1. Pythagoras’ Constant. A geometric irrationality proof of √2 appears in [1]; the transcendence of the numbers √2 √2 i π √2 , ii , ie would follow from a proof of Schanuel’s conjecture [2]. A curious recursion in [3, 4] gives the nth digit in the binary expansion of √2. Catalan [5] proved the Wallis-like infinite product for 1/√2. More references on radical denestings include [6, 7, 8, 9]. 1.2. The Golden Mean. The cubic irrational ψ =1.3247179572... is connected to a sequence 3 ψ1 =1, ψn = 1+ ψn 1 for n 2 − ≥ which experimentally gives rise to [10] p n 1 lim (ψ ψn) 3(1 + ) =1.8168834242.... n − ψ →∞ The cubic irrational χ =1.8392867552... is mentioned elsewhere in the literature with arXiv:2001.00578v2 [math.HO] 3 Aug 2021 regard to iterative functions [11, 12, 13] (the four-numbers game is a special case of what are known as Ducci sequences), geometric constructions [14, 15] and numerical analysis [16]. Infinite radical expressions are further covered in [17, 18, 19]; more gen- eralized continued fractions appear in [20, 21]. See [22] for an interesting optimality property of the logarithmic spiral. A mean-value analog C of Viswanath’s constant 1.13198824... (the latter applies for almost every random Fibonacci sequence) was dis- covered by Rittaud [23]: C =1.2055694304..
    [Show full text]
  • The Maximum Modulus of a Trigonometric Trinomial
    The maximum modulus of a trigonometric trinomial Stefan Neuwirth Abstract Let Λ be a set of three integers and let CΛ be the space of 2π-periodic functions with spectrum in Λ endowed with the maximum modulus norm. We isolate the maximum modulus points x of trigonometric trinomials T ∈ CΛ and prove that x is unique unless |T | has an axis of symmetry. This enables us to compute the exposed and the extreme points of the unit ball of CΛ, to describe how the maximum modulus of T varies with respect to the arguments of its Fourier coefficients and to compute the norm of unimodular relative Fourier multipliers on CΛ. We obtain in particular the Sidon constant of Λ. 1 Introduction Let λ1, λ2 and λ3 be three pairwise distinct integers. Let r1, r2 and r3 be three positive real numbers. Given three real numbers t1, t2 and t3, let us consider the trigonometric trinomial i(t1+λ1x) i(t2+λ2x) i(t3+λ3x) T (x)= r1 e + r2 e + r3 e (1) for x R. The λ’s are the frequencies of the trigonometric trinomial T , the r’s are the moduli or ∈ it1 it2 it3 intensities and the t’s the arguments or phases of its Fourier coefficients r1 e , r2 e and r3 e . −1 −e iπ/3 Figure 1: The unit circle, the hypotrochoid H with equation z =4e −i2x +e ix, the segment from 1 to the unique point on H at maximum distance and the segments from e iπ/3 to the two points− on H at maximum distance.
    [Show full text]
  • What Can We Do with a Solution?
    Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 66 No. 1 (2002) URL: http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/entcs/volume66.html 14 pages What can we do with a Solution? Simon Langley 1 School of Computer Science University of the West of England Bristol, UK Daniel Richardson 2 Department of Computer Science University of Bath Bath, UK Abstract If S =0isasystemofn equations and unknowns over C and S(α) = 0 to what extent can we compute with the point α? In particular, can we decide whether or not a polynomial expressions in the components of α with integral coefficients is zero? This question is considered for both algebraic and elementary systems of equations. 1 Introduction In this article, a system of equations is of the form S =0,whereS = n n (p1,...,pn):C → C ,andeachpi is analytic. Asolution to such a sys- tem is a point α ∈ Cn so that S(α) = 0. ANewton point is a point α∗,and ∗ an associated number >0sothatifX0 is any point within distance of α , the Newton sequence defined by −1 Xi+1 = Xi − JS (Xi)S(Xi) where JS is the Jacobian matrix of S, converges to a solution α, and has the −2i property that |Xi − α| < 10 . Thus the precision of the approximation to the solution doubles at each iteration. We can specify α∗ and as intervals with rational endpoints. 1 Email: [email protected] 2 Email: [email protected] c 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B. V. 113 Langley and Richardson Agreat deal of effort is directed to finding such solutions.
    [Show full text]
  • A Simplified Method of Recognizing Zero Among Elementary Constants
    A simplified method of recognizing zero among elementary constants Daniel Richardson, Department of Mathematics, University of Bath, Bath BA2, England. [email protected]. maths Abstract unique non singular solution in N, (r). The question of how such a proof can be given will be discussed later. In ISSAC ’94, a method was given for deciding whether or A basic problem about the elementary numbers is how not an elementary constant, given as a polynomial image of to decide, given a description, as above, of an elementary a solution of a system of exponential polynomial equations, number, whether or not the number is zero. This is called represents the famous object zero. the element ary constant problem [see Richardson, 1992]. In this article the technique is considerably simplified The solution given below is an improved version of the and speeded up. The main improvement has been to in- solution given in the 1994 ISSAC [Richardson and Fitch]. tegrate the numerical and symbolic computations in such a Both solutions rely upon not stumbling over a counterex- way that unnecessary branches of the symbolic computation ample to the following conjecture. are avoided. Schanuel’s Conjecture If ZI, ..., Zk are ~ comPlex num- bers which are linearly independent over the rationals, then 1 The elementary numbers the transcendence rank of An exponential system is a system of equations (S = O,E = zk,l,l, ezk}ezk} O), where S is a finite set of polynomials in QIx1, Y1, ..., xn> Yn], {.2,,..., and E is a subset of {ul —ezl, . ,Y~ —e“ } is at least k We will write (S., E~ ) for an exponential system with r polynomials and k exponential terms.
    [Show full text]
  • Symbolic Integration: the Stormy Decade Joel Moses* Project MAC, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
    Symbolic Integration: The Stormy Decade Joel Moses* Project MAC, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts Three approaches to symbolic integration in the Introduction 1960's are described. The first, from artificial intelligence, led to Slagle's SAINT and to a large degree Symbolic integration led a stormy life in the 1960's. to Moses' SIN. The second, from algebraic manipulation, In the beginning of the decade only humans could led to Manove's implementation and to Horowitz' and determine the indefinite integral to all but the most Tobey's reexamination of the Hermite algorithm for trivial problems. The techniques used had not changed integrating rational functions. The third, from materially in 200 years. People were satisfied in con- mathematics, led to Richardson's proof of the sidering the problem as requiring heuristic solutions unsolvability of the problem for a class of functions and and a good deal of resourcefulness and intelligence. for Risch's decision procedure for the elementary There was no hint of the tremendous changes that were functions. Generalizations of Risch's algorithm to a to take place in the decade to come. By the end of the class of special functions and programs for solving decade computer programs were faster and sometimes differential equations and for finding the definite integral more powerful than humans, while using techniques are also described. similar to theirs. Advances in the theory of integration Key Words and Phrases: integration, symbolic yielded procedures which in a strong sense completely integration, definite integrals, rational functions solved the integration problem for the usual elementary CR Categories: 3.1, 3.2, 3.6, 4.9, 5.2, 5.9 functions.
    [Show full text]
  • MATH 873 F19 NOTES (IN PROGRESS) 1. Introduction
    MATH 873 F19 NOTES (IN PROGRESS) 1. Introduction Slaman: [..] we are attempting to understand the interaction be- tween the mathematical objects and the means needed to speak about them. Themes of this course: { Computability as a unifying and organizing principle spanning different fields (e.g., combinatorics, analysis, topology) { Interactions between computable reducibilities and reverse math- ematics Examples of problems: { Given a continuous function f : R ! R with a zero, find a zero; { Given a convergent sequence of real numbers, find its limit; { Given a bounded sequence of real numbers, find an accumula- tion point; { Given a sequence of natural numbers, find its minimum; { Given a bounded sequence of natural numbers, find its maxi- mum; { Given a finitely branching infinite subtree of N<N, find an infi- nite path; { Given a countable open cover of [0; 1], find a finite subcover; { Given a continuous function f : [0; 1] ! R such that f(0) and f(1) have opposite signs, find a zero. A basic question of computable mathematics: Can we solve these problems computably? If not, can we measure how noncomputable they are? Some early (i.e., 1950's) results in the area: { There is a computable bounded increasing sequence of real num- bers whose limit is not computable (Specker); { There is an infinite computable subtree of 2<N with no com- putable path (Kleene). Date: December 2, 2019. 1 2 MATH 873 F19 NOTES (IN PROGRESS) The above results imply that the corresponding problems cannot be solved computably, for any computable way to solve a problem certainly must produce a computable solution for each computable instance.
    [Show full text]