Complexity Bounds for Ordinal-Based Termination

`What more than its truth do we know if we have a proof of a theorem in a given formal system?' We examine Kreisel's question in the particular context of program termination proofs, with an eye to deriving complexity bounds on program running times. Our main tool for this are length function theorems, which provide complexity bounds on the use of well quasi orders. We illustrate how to prove such theorems in the simple yet until now untreated case of ordinals. We show how to apply this new theorem to derive complexity bounds on programs when they are proven to terminate thanks to a ranking function into some ordinal.Comment: Invited talk at the 8th International Workshop on Reachability Problems (RP 2014, 22-24 September 2014, Oxford

The random graph

Erd\H{o}s and R\'{e}nyi showed the paradoxical result that there is a unique (and highly symmetric) countably infinite random graph. This graph, and its automorphism group, form the subject of the present survey.Comment: Revised chapter for new edition of book "The Mathematics of Paul Erd\H{o}s