A Survey on Continuous Time Computations

We provide an overview of theories of continuous time computation. These theories allow us to understand both the hardness of questions related to continuous time dynamical systems and the computational power of continuous time analog models. We survey the existing models, summarizing results, and point to relevant references in the literature

Infinite time Turing machines and an application to the hierarchy of equivalence relations on the reals

We describe the basic theory of infinite time Turing machines and some recent developments, including the infinite time degree theory, infinite time complexity theory, and infinite time computable model theory. We focus particularly on the application of infinite time Turing machines to the analysis of the hierarchy of equivalence relations on the reals, in analogy with the theory arising from Borel reducibility. We define a notion of infinite time reducibility, which lifts much of the Borel theory into the class $\bm{\Delta}^1_2$ in a satisfying way.Comment: Submitted to the Effective Mathematics of the Uncountable Conference, 200

Constructive Dimension and Turing Degrees

This paper examines the constructive Hausdorff and packing dimensions of Turing degrees. The main result is that every infinite sequence S with constructive Hausdorff dimension dim_H(S) and constructive packing dimension dim_P(S) is Turing equivalent to a sequence R with dim_H(R) <= (dim_H(S) / dim_P(S)) - epsilon, for arbitrary epsilon > 0. Furthermore, if dim_P(S) > 0, then dim_P(R) >= 1 - epsilon. The reduction thus serves as a *randomness extractor* that increases the algorithmic randomness of S, as measured by constructive dimension. A number of applications of this result shed new light on the constructive dimensions of Turing degrees. A lower bound of dim_H(S) / dim_P(S) is shown to hold for the Turing degree of any sequence S. A new proof is given of a previously-known zero-one law for the constructive packing dimension of Turing degrees. It is also shown that, for any regular sequence S (that is, dim_H(S) = dim_P(S)) such that dim_H(S) > 0, the Turing degree of S has constructive Hausdorff and packing dimension equal to 1. Finally, it is shown that no single Turing reduction can be a universal constructive Hausdorff dimension extractor, and that bounded Turing reductions cannot extract constructive Hausdorff dimension. We also exhibit sequences on which weak truth-table and bounded Turing reductions differ in their ability to extract dimension.Comment: The version of this paper appearing in Theory of Computing Systems, 45(4):740-755, 2009, had an error in the proof of Theorem 2.4, due to insufficient care with the choice of delta. This version modifies that proof to fix the error

Revising Type-2 Computation and Degrees of Discontinuity

By the sometimes so-called MAIN THEOREM of Recursive Analysis, every computable real function is necessarily continuous. Weihrauch and Zheng (TCS'2000), Brattka (MLQ'2005), and Ziegler (ToCS'2006) have considered different relaxed notions of computability to cover also discontinuous functions. The present work compares and unifies these approaches. This is based on the concept of the JUMP of a representation: both a TTE-counterpart to the well known recursion-theoretic jump on Kleene's Arithmetical Hierarchy of hypercomputation: and a formalization of revising computation in the sense of Shoenfield. We also consider Markov and Banach/Mazur oracle-computation of discontinuous fu nctions and characterize the computational power of Type-2 nondeterminism to coincide with the first level of the Analytical Hierarchy.Comment: to appear in Proc. CCA'0

Computable de Finetti measures

We prove a computable version of de Finetti's theorem on exchangeable sequences of real random variables. As a consequence, exchangeable stochastic processes expressed in probabilistic functional programming languages can be automatically rewritten as procedures that do not modify non-local state. Along the way, we prove that a distribution on the unit interval is computable if and only if its moments are uniformly computable.Comment: 32 pages. Final journal version; expanded somewhat, with minor corrections. To appear in Annals of Pure and Applied Logic. Extended abstract appeared in Proceedings of CiE '09, LNCS 5635, pp. 218-23