999 research outputs found
Beyond the Existential Theory of the Reals
We show that completeness at higher levels of the theory of the reals is a
robust notion (under changing the signature and bounding the domain of the
quantifiers). This mends recognized gaps in the hierarchy, and leads to
stronger completeness results for various computational problems. We exhibit
several families of complete problems which can be used for future completeness
results in the real hierarchy. As an application we sharpen some results by
B\"{u}rgisser and Cucker on the complexity of properties of semialgebraic sets,
including the Hausdorff distance problem also studied by Jungeblut, Kleist, and
Miltzow
The quantum measurement problem and physical reality: a computation theoretic perspective
Is the universe computable? If yes, is it computationally a polynomial place?
In standard quantum mechanics, which permits infinite parallelism and the
infinitely precise specification of states, a negative answer to both questions
is not ruled out. On the other hand, empirical evidence suggests that
NP-complete problems are intractable in the physical world. Likewise,
computational problems known to be algorithmically uncomputable do not seem to
be computable by any physical means. We suggest that this close correspondence
between the efficiency and power of abstract algorithms on the one hand, and
physical computers on the other, finds a natural explanation if the universe is
assumed to be algorithmic; that is, that physical reality is the product of
discrete sub-physical information processing equivalent to the actions of a
probabilistic Turing machine. This assumption can be reconciled with the
observed exponentiality of quantum systems at microscopic scales, and the
consequent possibility of implementing Shor's quantum polynomial time algorithm
at that scale, provided the degree of superposition is intrinsically, finitely
upper-bounded. If this bound is associated with the quantum-classical divide
(the Heisenberg cut), a natural resolution to the quantum measurement problem
arises. From this viewpoint, macroscopic classicality is an evidence that the
universe is in BPP, and both questions raised above receive affirmative
answers. A recently proposed computational model of quantum measurement, which
relates the Heisenberg cut to the discreteness of Hilbert space, is briefly
discussed. A connection to quantum gravity is noted. Our results are compatible
with the philosophy that mathematical truths are independent of the laws of
physics.Comment: Talk presented at "Quantum Computing: Back Action 2006", IIT Kanpur,
India, March 200
Some new results on decidability for elementary algebra and geometry
We carry out a systematic study of decidability for theories of (a) real
vector spaces, inner product spaces, and Hilbert spaces and (b) normed spaces,
Banach spaces and metric spaces, all formalised using a 2-sorted first-order
language. The theories for list (a) turn out to be decidable while the theories
for list (b) are not even arithmetical: the theory of 2-dimensional Banach
spaces, for example, has the same many-one degree as the set of truths of
second-order arithmetic.
We find that the purely universal and purely existential fragments of the
theory of normed spaces are decidable, as is the AE fragment of the theory of
metric spaces. These results are sharp of their type: reductions of Hilbert's
10th problem show that the EA fragments for metric and normed spaces and the AE
fragment for normed spaces are all undecidable.Comment: 79 pages, 9 figures. v2: Numerous minor improvements; neater proofs
of Theorems 8 and 29; v3: fixed subscripts in proof of Lemma 3
Resource Bounded Unprovability of Computational Lower Bounds
This paper introduces new notions of asymptotic proofs,
PT(polynomial-time)-extensions, PTM(polynomial-time Turing
machine)-omega-consistency, etc. on formal theories of arithmetic including PA
(Peano Arithmetic). This paper shows that P not= NP (more generally, any
super-polynomial-time lower bound in PSPACE) is unprovable in a
PTM-omega-consistent theory T, where T is a consistent PT-extension of PA. This
result gives a unified view to the existing two major negative results on
proving P not= NP, Natural Proofs and relativizable proofs, through the two
manners of characterization of PTM-omega-consistency. We also show that the
PTM-omega-consistency of T cannot be proven in any PTM-omega-consistent theory
S, where S is a consistent PT-extension of T.Comment: 78 page
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