82,750 research outputs found
Existential witness extraction in classical realizability and via a negative translation
We show how to extract existential witnesses from classical proofs using
Krivine's classical realizability---where classical proofs are interpreted as
lambda-terms with the call/cc control operator. We first recall the basic
framework of classical realizability (in classical second-order arithmetic) and
show how to extend it with primitive numerals for faster computations. Then we
show how to perform witness extraction in this framework, by discussing several
techniques depending on the shape of the existential formula. In particular, we
show that in the Sigma01-case, Krivine's witness extraction method reduces to
Friedman's through a well-suited negative translation to intuitionistic
second-order arithmetic. Finally we discuss the advantages of using call/cc
rather than a negative translation, especially from the point of view of an
implementation.Comment: 52 pages. Accepted in Logical Methods for Computer Science (LMCS),
201
Computational reverse mathematics and foundational analysis
Reverse mathematics studies which subsystems of second order arithmetic are
equivalent to key theorems of ordinary, non-set-theoretic mathematics. The main
philosophical application of reverse mathematics proposed thus far is
foundational analysis, which explores the limits of different foundations for
mathematics in a formally precise manner. This paper gives a detailed account
of the motivations and methodology of foundational analysis, which have
heretofore been largely left implicit in the practice. It then shows how this
account can be fruitfully applied in the evaluation of major foundational
approaches by a careful examination of two case studies: a partial realization
of Hilbert's program due to Simpson [1988], and predicativism in the extended
form due to Feferman and Sch\"{u}tte.
Shore [2010, 2013] proposes that equivalences in reverse mathematics be
proved in the same way as inequivalences, namely by considering only
-models of the systems in question. Shore refers to this approach as
computational reverse mathematics. This paper shows that despite some
attractive features, computational reverse mathematics is inappropriate for
foundational analysis, for two major reasons. Firstly, the computable
entailment relation employed in computational reverse mathematics does not
preserve justification for the foundational programs above. Secondly,
computable entailment is a complete relation, and hence employing it
commits one to theoretical resources which outstrip those available within any
foundational approach that is proof-theoretically weaker than
.Comment: Submitted. 41 page
Including parameter dependence in the data and covariance for cosmological inference
The final step of most large-scale structure analyses involves the comparison
of power spectra or correlation functions to theoretical models. It is clear
that the theoretical models have parameter dependence, but frequently the
measurements and the covariance matrix depend upon some of the parameters as
well. We show that a very simple interpolation scheme from an unstructured mesh
allows for an efficient way to include this parameter dependence
self-consistently in the analysis at modest computational expense. We describe
two schemes for covariance matrices. The scheme which uses the geometric
structure of such matrices performs roughly twice as well as the simplest
scheme, though both perform very well.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, matches version published in JCA
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
On the mathematical and foundational significance of the uncountable
We study the logical and computational properties of basic theorems of
uncountable mathematics, including the Cousin and Lindel\"of lemma published in
1895 and 1903. Historically, these lemmas were among the first formulations of
open-cover compactness and the Lindel\"of property, respectively. These notions
are of great conceptual importance: the former is commonly viewed as a way of
treating uncountable sets like e.g. as 'almost finite', while the
latter allows one to treat uncountable sets like e.g. as 'almost
countable'. This reduction of the uncountable to the finite/countable turns out
to have a considerable logical and computational cost: we show that the
aforementioned lemmas, and many related theorems, are extremely hard to prove,
while the associated sub-covers are extremely hard to compute. Indeed, in terms
of the standard scale (based on comprehension axioms), a proof of these lemmas
requires at least the full extent of second-order arithmetic, a system
originating from Hilbert-Bernays' Grundlagen der Mathematik. This observation
has far-reaching implications for the Grundlagen's spiritual successor, the
program of Reverse Mathematics, and the associated G\"odel hierachy. We also
show that the Cousin lemma is essential for the development of the gauge
integral, a generalisation of the Lebesgue and improper Riemann integrals that
also uniquely provides a direct formalisation of Feynman's path integral.Comment: 35 pages with one figure. The content of this version extends the
published version in that Sections 3.3.4 and 3.4 below are new. Small
corrections/additions have also been made to reflect new development
Pincherle's theorem in Reverse Mathematics and computability theory
We study the logical and computational properties of basic theorems of
uncountable mathematics, in particular Pincherle's theorem, published in 1882.
This theorem states that a locally bounded function is bounded on certain
domains, i.e. one of the first 'local-to-global' principles. It is well-known
that such principles in analysis are intimately connected to (open-cover)
compactness, but we nonetheless exhibit fundamental differences between
compactness and Pincherle's theorem. For instance, the main question of Reverse
Mathematics, namely which set existence axioms are necessary to prove
Pincherle's theorem, does not have an unique or unambiguous answer, in contrast
to compactness. We establish similar differences for the computational
properties of compactness and Pincherle's theorem. We establish the same
differences for other local-to-global principles, even going back to
Weierstrass. We also greatly sharpen the known computational power of
compactness, for the most shared with Pincherle's theorem however. Finally,
countable choice plays an important role in the previous, we therefore study
this axiom together with the intimately related Lindel\"of lemma.Comment: 43 pages, one appendix, to appear in Annals of Pure and Applied Logi
Non-principal ultrafilters, program extraction and higher order reverse mathematics
We investigate the strength of the existence of a non-principal ultrafilter
over fragments of higher order arithmetic.
Let U be the statement that a non-principal ultrafilter exists and let
ACA_0^{\omega} be the higher order extension of ACA_0. We show that
ACA_0^{\omega}+U is \Pi^1_2-conservative over ACA_0^{\omega} and thus that
ACA_0^{\omega}+\U is conservative over PA.
Moreover, we provide a program extraction method and show that from a proof
of a strictly \Pi^1_2 statement \forall f \exists g A(f,g) in ACA_0^{\omega}+U
a realizing term in G\"odel's system T can be extracted. This means that one
can extract a term t, such that A(f,t(f))
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