Polynomial Interpretations over the Natural, Rational and Real Numbers Revisited

Polynomial interpretations are a useful technique for proving termination of term rewrite systems. They come in various flavors: polynomial interpretations with real, rational and integer coefficients. As to their relationship with respect to termination proving power, Lucas managed to prove in 2006 that there are rewrite systems that can be shown polynomially terminating by polynomial interpretations with real (algebraic) coefficients, but cannot be shown polynomially terminating using polynomials with rational coefficients only. He also proved the corresponding statement regarding the use of rational coefficients versus integer coefficients. In this article we extend these results, thereby giving the full picture of the relationship between the aforementioned variants of polynomial interpretations. In particular, we show that polynomial interpretations with real or rational coefficients do not subsume polynomial interpretations with integer coefficients. Our results hold also for incremental termination proofs with polynomial interpretations.Comment: 28 pages; special issue of RTA 201

12th International Workshop on Termination (WST 2012) : WST 2012, February 19–23, 2012, Obergurgl, Austria / ed. by Georg Moser

This volume contains the proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Termination (WST 2012), to be held February 19–23, 2012 in Obergurgl, Austria. The goal of the Workshop on Termination is to be a venue for presentation and discussion of all topics in and around termination. In this way, the workshop tries to bridge the gaps between different communities interested and active in research in and around termination. The 12th International Workshop on Termination in Obergurgl continues the successful workshops held in St. Andrews (1993), La Bresse (1995), Ede (1997), Dagstuhl (1999), Utrecht (2001), Valencia (2003), Aachen (2004), Seattle (2006), Paris (2007), Leipzig (2009), and Edinburgh (2010). The 12th International Workshop on Termination did welcome contributions on all aspects of termination and complexity analysis. Contributions from the imperative, constraint, functional, and logic programming communities, and papers investigating applications of complexity or termination (for example in program transformation or theorem proving) were particularly welcome. We did receive 18 submissions which all were accepted. Each paper was assigned two reviewers. In addition to these 18 contributed talks, WST 2012, hosts three invited talks by Alexander Krauss, Martin Hofmann, and Fausto Spoto

Computability and analysis: the legacy of Alan Turing

We discuss the legacy of Alan Turing and his impact on computability and analysis.Comment: 49 page

Unitary local systems, multiplier ideals, and polynomial periodicity of Hodge numbers

The space of unitary local systems of rank one on the complement of an arbitrary divisor in a complex projective algebraic variety can be described in terms of parabolic line bundles. We show that multiplier ideals provide natural stratifications of this space. We prove a structure theorem for these stratifications in terms of complex tori and convex rational polytopes, generalizing to the quasi-projective case results of Green-Lazarsfeld and Simpson. As an application we show the polynomial periodicity of Hodge numbers of congruence covers in any dimension, generalizing results of E. Hironaka and Sakuma. We extend the structure theorem and polynomial periodicity to the setting of cohomology of unitary local systems. In particular, we obtain a generalization of the polynomial periodicity of Betti numbers of unbranched congruence covers due to Sarnak-Adams. We derive a geometric characterization of finite abelian covers, which recovers the classic one and the one of Pardini. We use this, for example, to prove a conjecture of Libgober about Hodge numbers of abelian covers.Comment: final version, to appear in Adv. Mat

Polynomial Triangles Revisited

A polynomial triangle is an array whose inputs are the coefficients in integral powers of a polynomial. Although polynomial coefficients have appeared in several works, there is no systematic treatise on this topic. In this paper we plan to fill this gap. We describe some aspects of these arrays, which generalize similar properties of the binomial coefficients. Some combinatorial models enumerated by polynomial coefficients, including lattice paths model, spin chain model and scores in a drawing game, are introduced. Several known binomial identities are then extended. In addition, we calculate recursively generating functions of column sequences. Interesting corollaries follow from these recurrence relations such as new formulae for the Fibonacci numbers and Hermite polynomials in terms of trinomial coefficients. Finally, properties of the entropy density function that characterizes polynomial coefficients in the thermodynamical limit are studied in details.Comment: 24 pages with 1 figure eps include