The Algebraic View of Computation

We argue that computation is an abstract algebraic concept, and a computer is a result of a morphism (a structure preserving map) from a finite universal semigroup.Comment: 13 pages, final version will be published elsewher

On FO2 quantifier alternation over words

We show that each level of the quantifier alternation hierarchy within FO^2[<] -- the 2-variable fragment of the first order logic of order on words -- is a variety of languages. We then use the notion of condensed rankers, a refinement of the rankers defined by Weis and Immerman, to produce a decidable hierarchy of varieties which is interwoven with the quantifier alternation hierarchy -- and conjecturally equal to it. It follows that the latter hierarchy is decidable within one unit: given a formula alpha in FO^2[<], one can effectively compute an integer m such that alpha is equivalent to a formula with at most m+1 alternating blocks of quantifiers, but not to a formula with only m-1 blocks. This is a much more precise result than what is known about the quantifier alternation hierarchy within FO[<], where no decidability result is known beyond the very first levels

The prospects for mathematical logic in the twenty-first century

The four authors present their speculations about the future developments of mathematical logic in the twenty-first century. The areas of recursion theory, proof theory and logic for computer science, model theory, and set theory are discussed independently.Comment: Association for Symbolic Logi

Fourier spectra of measures associated with algorithmically random Brownian motion

In this paper we study the behaviour at infinity of the Fourier transform of Radon measures supported by the images of fractal sets under an algorithmically random Brownian motion. We show that, under some computability conditions on these sets, the Fourier transform of the associated measures have, relative to the Hausdorff dimensions of these sets, optimal asymptotic decay at infinity. The argument relies heavily on a direct characterisation, due to Asarin and Pokrovskii, of algorithmically random Brownian motion in terms of the prefix free Kolmogorov complexity of finite binary sequences. The study also necessitates a closer look at the potential theory over fractals from a computable point of view.Comment: 24 page