On the Continuity of Effective Multifunctions

AbstractIf one wants to compute with infinite objects like real numbers or data streams, continuity is a necessary requirement: better and better (finite) approximations of the input are transformed in better and better (finite) approximations of the output. In case the objects are constructively generated, they can be represented by a finite description of the generating procedure. By effectively transforming such descriptions for the generation of the input (respectively, their codes) in (the code of) a description for the generation of the output another type of computable operation is obtained. Such operations are also called effective. The relationship of both classes of operations has always been a question of great interest and well known theorems such as those of Myhill and Shepherdson, Kreisel, Lacombe and Shoenfield, Ceĭtin, and/or Moschovakis present answers for important special cases. A general, unifying approach has been developed by the present author in [D. Spreen. On effective topological spaces. The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 63 (1998), 185–221. Corrections ibid., 65 (2000), 1917–1918].In this paper the approach is extended to the case of multifunctions. Such functions appear very naturally in applied mathematics, logic and theoretical computer science. Various ways of coding (indexing) sets are discussed and effective versions of several continuity notions for multifunctions are introduced. For each of these notions an indexing system for sets is exhibited so that the multifunctions that are effective with respect to this indexing system and possess certain witness functions are exactly the multifunction which are effectively continuous with respect to the continuity notion under consideration. Important special cases are discussed where such witnessing functions always exist

Representations versus numberings: on the relationship of two computability notions

AbstractThis paper gives an answer to Weihrauch's (Computability, Springer, Berlin, 1987) question whether and, if not always, when an effective map between the computable elements of two represented sets can be extended to a (partial) computable map between the represented sets. Examples are known showing that this is not possible in general. A condition is introduced and for countably based topological T0-spaces it is shown that exactly the (partial) effective maps meeting the requirement are extendable. For total effective maps the extra condition is satisfied in the standard cases of effectively given separable metric spaces and continuous directed-complete partial orders, in which the extendability is already known. In the first case a similar result holds also for partial effective maps, but not in the second

Effective solutions of recursive domain equations

Solving recursive domain equations is one of the main concerns in the denotational semantics of programming languages, and in the algebraic specification of data types. Because we are to solve them for the specification of computable objects, effective solutions of them should be needed. Though general methods for obtaining solutions are well known, effectiveness of the solutions has not been explicitly investigated.* The main objective of this dissertation is to provide a categorical method for obtaining effective solutions of recursive domain equations. Thence we will provide effective models of denotational semantics and algebraic data types. The importance of considering the effectiveness of solutions is two-fold. First we can guarantee that for every denotational specification of a programming language and algebraic data type specification, implementation exists. Second, we have an instance of a computability theory where higher type computability and even infinite type computability can be discussed very smoothly. *While this dissertation has been written, Plotkin and Smyth obtained an alternative to our method which worked only for effectively given categories with universal objects