2,446 research outputs found
How unprovable is Rabin's decidability theorem?
We study the strength of set-theoretic axioms needed to prove Rabin's theorem
on the decidability of the MSO theory of the infinite binary tree. We first
show that the complementation theorem for tree automata, which forms the
technical core of typical proofs of Rabin's theorem, is equivalent over the
moderately strong second-order arithmetic theory to a
determinacy principle implied by the positional determinacy of all parity games
and implying the determinacy of all Gale-Stewart games given by boolean
combinations of sets. It follows that complementation for
tree automata is provable from - but not -comprehension.
We then use results due to MedSalem-Tanaka, M\"ollerfeld and
Heinatsch-M\"ollerfeld to prove that over -comprehension, the
complementation theorem for tree automata, decidability of the MSO theory of
the infinite binary tree, positional determinacy of parity games and
determinacy of Gale-Stewart games are all
equivalent. Moreover, these statements are equivalent to the
-reflection principle for -comprehension. It follows in
particular that Rabin's decidability theorem is not provable in
-comprehension.Comment: 21 page
Martin's conjecture, arithmetic equivalence, and countable Borel equivalence relations
There is a fascinating interplay and overlap between recursion theory and
descriptive set theory. A particularly beautiful source of such interaction has
been Martin's conjecture on Turing invariant functions. This longstanding open
problem in recursion theory has connected to many problems in descriptive set
theory, particularly in the theory of countable Borel equivalence relations.
In this paper, we shall give an overview of some work that has been done on
Martin's conjecture, and applications that it has had in descriptive set
theory. We will present a long unpublished result of Slaman and Steel that
arithmetic equivalence is a universal countable Borel equivalence relation.
This theorem has interesting corollaries for the theory of universal countable
Borel equivalence relations in general. We end with some open problems, and
directions for future research.Comment: Corrected typo
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